Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SCOoPE (Saving COOPerative Energy)

Teaser

In the industrial sector, many different technology providers, research centres, and institutions work on how to improve energy efficiency in the industrial sector. Certainly it is a relevant sector in terms of energy consumption. However, the agro-food sector is another...

Summary

In the industrial sector, many different technology providers, research centres, and institutions work on how to improve energy efficiency in the industrial sector. Certainly it is a relevant sector in terms of energy consumption. However, the agro-food sector is another important industrial sector that goes one step behind and there are still many facilities which are not as efficient as possible. In this regard, the SCOoPE project is addressed to close the gap between available technologies and agro-food industries and so foster the implementation of more efficient technologies in the agro-industries.
The agro-food sector is an essential industrial sector in any country. Moreover, these industries manage large amounts of food, as raw materials and products, under precise safety conditions. Consequently, their energy consumption is quite relevant too. Thus, the reduction of their energy consumption is important from two sides: from one side, it is important for reducing production costs, and in the other side, for its environmental consequences.
That being said, the SCOoPE project aims at reducing energy consumption of the agro-food industries, mainly by improving their energy efficiency by implementing cost-effective and market available solutions. Moreover, this project develops a pilot experience in Collaborative Energy Management, getting together several agro-industries for improving their energy behaviour. All actions of the project are specifically addressed to share knowledge on energy efficient technologies and to implement these energy efficiency measures by the agro-industries.

Work performed

In the first 18 months of the project covered by this Interim Report, the work performed has been in line with the scheduled activities. First of all, the preliminary actions were developed, namely: project management plan and management issues, development of dissemination materials, training actions, collection of the available data and studies, indicators, and establishment of the baselines in relation with the processes description.
After these preliminary actions, the work performed was more intense in relation to energy efficiency specifically addressed to the agro-food sector. In this sense, the training of professionals working with or working for the agro-industries was executed, as well as the software tool to facilitate the energy assessment process. Moreover, the contacts with Key Actors -technology providers, suppliers and financial institutions- become closer, and their available energy efficiency measures were gathered, as well as the conditions established by the bank to grant a loan.
Beyond that, and aiming at improving energy efficiency in the agro-industries, the tasks addressed to develop Collaborative Energy Management Systems have started in this first period, and will be completely developed in the coming months and provide their conclusion after one year of pilot clusters working.
Finally, in order to enlarge the available knowledge gathered through the work and experience of the SCOoPE partners, the webpage acts as window of project, including all the useful documents of the project that are public, the News and events related to SCOoPE, and including specific webinars session for training any person interested in energy efficiency in the agro-food sector.

Final results

In relation to the available knowledge in terms of energy analysis of the agro-food processes, this project, and the coming results and conclusions, will contribute to identify the key processes and to disseminate the available solutions for reducing energy consumption in the agro-food industry sector.
The documents publicly available on processes description (Extended Value Stream Maps), the levels of reference in relation to energy consumption in each process (Key Performance Indicators), and the best technologies market available (Existing cost-effective solutions) as well as the software tool designed to assess energy efficiency (Diagnosis tool) put together all the necessary information that a company needs to tackle its energy efficiency problem.
Moreover, the experiences that will be achieved in relation to the real performance of the Collaborative Energy Management Systems will be essential for the overall community knowledge, and it is expected that will inspire other agro-industries to do the same and improve their energy efficiency.
Thus, the dissemination activities will be fundamental for the success of the project. In this sense, 28 brokerage events are scheduled to take place in the coming months, in the 7 countries participating in the project. Moreover, promotion in media via articles, presentations of the project results in different fairs and events, and web promotion will be carried out during the next 18 months of the project.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.scoope.eu.