UNIDO Seminar on the Implementation of Energy Management Systems at an Industrial Enterprise

The rise in the cost of energy carriers – this is a problem not only for Ukraine, but also for the whole world. Currently, in Ukraine, prices for fuel, electricity, water and other resources are growing very rapidly, no one can say with certainty what the price of, for example, electricity will be in a few months. Because of this, the problem of increasing energy efficiency, and therefore the economical use of energy carriers in our country, is becoming more and more important. For comparison, Western European countries began to implement energy management systems and increase the energy efficiency of industrial enterprises 20-25 years ago. This means only one thing – until recently, the price of energy carriers in Ukraine was so low that enterprise managers did not even think about whether they were used rationally. Now, given the constant increase in resource prices, the issue of saving has become acute. That is why the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) initiated a project to implement the Energy Management Systems (EMS) standard in the industry of Ukraine. As part of the project, specialists with extensive experience in implementing such systems conducted a series of seminars in the cities of the country, where they shared their own experience and gave participants practical skills in implementing EMS and their organizations. A similar seminar was held in Zaporizhzhia. On September 17-18, a UNIDO seminar was held at the Zaporizhzhia National Technical University for representatives of the city’s industrial enterprises.

The seminar lecturers, energy managers with extensive experience, Egmont Otterman (South Africa) and Erik Gudbjerg (Denmark) presented the participants with an almost step-by-step instruction on implementing SEnM at the enterprise. Basically, the seminar took place in the form of an interesting lecture, and at the very end, the participants in teams developed a plan to increase energy efficiency at the food industry enterprise. Despite the rather serious and technological topic, the seminar was held in one breath – the lecturers actively used comparisons, allegories («implementing SEnM – it’s like organizing a hunt for an elephant, and then eating it for a long time») and constantly lightened the serious atmosphere with jokes («We can call our seminar »50 shades of energy efficiency«). The training brought together representatives of many enterprises in Zaporizhzhia and beyond. Thus, among the participants were representatives of PJSC »Dniprospetsstal«, PJSC »Carlsberg Ukraine«, PJSC »Zaporizhzhia Ferroalloy Plant«, LLC »Converter«, LLC »Progress Auto«, LLC »Keramist Publishing House«, PJSC »Zaporizhvognetryv«, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia Chambers of Commerce and Industry, SE »Kryvyi Rih Scientific and Production Center for Standardization, Metrology and Certification«, shoe factory »Elegant”, ZNTU and Donetsk National Technical University. And this is not a complete list of participating enterprises.

Actually, the whole essence and main idea of ​​the seminar can be reduced to one sentence: the implementation of SEnM does not require significant investments and modernization of equipment – it is, first of all, a change in corporate culture and vision of the use of energy carriers. From my own point of view, I can add – it really is not difficult. You do not have to be an energy manager to increase the energy efficiency of even your own home. To begin with, you just need to turn off unnecessary heating and lighting devices. Such simple actions can save on utility bills. Agree, instead of paying kilometer bills for electricity, water and gas, it is much more pleasant to buy yourself a new gadget, clothes or just drink delicious coffee with cake, for example, in «O'Kakao».

In conclusion, I can say that this seminar made me think about how I use energy carriers. One can only imagine how many energy resources are used by Zaporizhzhia enterprises. Therefore, we hope that the UNIDO Seminar has put all the dots over «it» and convinced entrepreneurs that the path to energy-efficient production is not so thorny.

Kateryna Shapka

Press service of the student self-government of ZNTU