Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
From manual to automated measurement data acquisition and evaluation
An energy management system helps companies to become more energy efficient. But the energy management system itself should also function efficiently. Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG therefore relies on the system from econ solutions - and has even initiated the development of a new tool.
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG started energy management at its production sites several years ago, at that time using manual readings of the measuring points and evaluations in Excel. To simplify this, HEIDELBERG decided to introduce an energy management system. The aim was to obtain up-to-date, valid key figures and visualizations of energy consumption at the click of a mouse and thus achieve greater transparency. In addition, measurements compliant with calibration law are mandatory for the delimitation of third-party quantities.
The company's energy team looked at various systems. The decisive factor in the selection process was user-friendliness, as employees in the specialist departments also needed to be able to use the system. "We were impressed by econ's intuitive usability. With econ, we also have the option of making our own adjustments at hardware and software level, so that we can tailor the system perfectly to our requirements. Furthermore, econ also scored with the best price-performance ratio," explains Janis Steinhauser, Site Management at HEIDELBERG.
Thanks to the open and manufacturer-independent structure of the econ system, HEIDELBERG was able to integrate the existing meters and measuring devices with different interfaces and protocols relatively easily. For some devices, however, this was not economically viable. To enable HEIDELBERG to efficiently integrate these data points into the system, econ developed the econ mobile app in close cooperation with the customer.
Meter reading via app
In econ mobile, meter routes can be created that guide employees specifically to the meter reading points. There, they simply record the meter readings using a QR code. Each reading receives a time stamp and is immediately transferred to the econ4 evaluation software. Thanks to the plausibility check, incorrect entries are practically impossible.
Flexible interfaces via software
Initially, the energy management system at HEIDELBERG comprised around 400 meters, mainly for electricity and heat. Since then, it has grown steadily. Interfaces such as M-Bus and S0 pulse are integrated intothe system via the econ unit+ V2data logger. "We introduced the econ connect interface solution in 2022 so that we can flexibly connect even more meters from different manufacturers," reports Janis Steinhauser. This allows HEIDELBERG to integrate devices via Modbus. The software also enables automatic data import from the building management system via Excel, so that this data is also available for evaluation in the econ4 energy management software.
Transparency across all consumption
HEIDELBERG currently has around 1,000 measuring points for electricity, natural gas, oil, heat, water and waste water, refrigeration, nitrogen and compressed air at its Wiesloch-Walldorf, Amstetten, Brandenburg, Ludwigsburg and Kiel sites and at its branch in China.
"This means we now have transparency across all these media; econ4 provides up-to-date consumption data and the corresponding key figures can be calculated from this. We also make the data available internally so that colleagues can track their department's consumption," says Janis Steinhauser.
More energy efficiency in lighting
Part of the electricity consumption at HEIDELBERG is accounted for by the hall lighting. Based on the evaluations, the lighting time could be optimally adjusted to the shift times. This also applies if something changes, e.g. during coronavirus times or public holidays. This enabled HEIDELBERG to control and significantly reduce energy consumption.
The energy team and the plant operators who work with the econ system regularly receive the reports that are most important to them automatically by email. However, it is also possible to send reports to to people who do not work with the system. This allows them to see at a glance if something is wrong. "It's crucial that we have the information promptly. Otherwise we usually don't know why the consumption was atypical."
Heidelberger also uses the evaluations from econ
- for monthly internal cost allocation
- for billing external tenants
- as a decision-making aid for production planning
- to monitor the production processes
- to check how much efficiency improvement a measure has actually brought.
User-friendliness was the most important criterion for us. We were simply convinced by econ.
Janis Steinhauser, Site Management, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG