Sustainability is first and foremost a cultural approach that, as such, completely permeates the choices that a company makes, both at a strategic and operational level. For some time now, Mattei has pursued an energy efficiency based mission with its compressors, presenting itself as a qualified partner for companies in this area. And given its well-established energy saving oriented culture, it follows that Mattei would, in turn, also undertake an internal process of reducing energy consumption by intervening in a structured and comprehensive manner on the production sites, on the plant systems and the production processes. To do so, however, it was essential to be able to depend on an operator who could distinguish itself for its long-term vision.
Hence in June 2014, this led to the collaboration with ReFeel, a company operating in the energy efficiency sector with 2 offices in Italy and 5 offices around the world, and a team of over 30 professionals. What motivated Mattei most in choosing Re-Feel was mainly its innovative approach to the subject: “A step needed in order to reduce consumptions and measure the same.
Only by measuring consumptions is it possible to accurately define the energy absorption of the various centres of consumption, identify the most critical problems, evaluate the best energy efficiency solutions (firstly managerial - at zero cost - and later technological) and accurately quantify the results obtained by encouraging a process of continuous improvement. This is the method that sets us apart and that we also proposed to Mattei” emphasises the CEO at ReFeel, Carlo Maria Magni. In particular, Mattei needed to find a serious and capable partner, with which to face an energy efficiency mission in the medium-long term.
This partnership has two main objectives: to reduce relative consumptions (in terms of energy per unit of production) and reduce energy costs. “It was however essential for our energy partner to guide us on this mission – comments Mattei - and also to achieve these results without allocating any internal resources, allowing us to continue to focus on our core business”. A requirement immediately appropriated by ReFeel. And the first important results were achieved in a very short period of time. “We installed an accurate monitoring system that allowed us, through the analysis of the collected data, to identify certain anomalies in consumption. – explains the CEO at ReFeel, Carlo Maria Magni – These critical issues were resolved implementing behavioural-management type no cost and immediate return solutions, resulting in a 5% reduction in the energy consumptions recorded until then”.
The second step was a revamping of the heating system at the Zingonia-Verdello plant: “The Energy Management consulting service – continues Magni – has allowed us fine-tune the dimensioning of the new system, decreasing the cost of investment, thanks to a correct calculation of the heat demand of the structure and the generator capacity, reduced by 45%. We are waiting for the conclusion of the heating season to quantify the results of the new plant system”. Finally, we started an analysis of an intervention on one step of the production process, which is still in progress: “It is, in our opinion, an extremely critical and strategic phase in terms of energy efficiency. Once fully operational, it will make it possible to reduce energy consumptions by a further 14%”.
[From Issue 5, Vane Magazine, May 2016]
