Municipal energy management

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Municipal energy management describes the various activities and initiatives to reduce energy consumption in municipal buildings and within a municipality and to ensure it through regional and decentralized generation, in particular through renewable energy .

A distinction can be made between strategic and operational energy management. Strategic energy management is a long-term concept that determines the energy strategy and direction of a municipality across all buildings. Practical and related to specific individual objects, the operational energy management characterizes investigations and measures for the measurable reduction of the respective energy consumption.

In addition to measures to reduce energy consumption, e.g. B. through efficiency and thermal insulation, the main focus is on the expansion and regional use of renewable energy sources.

history

After the oil crises of the years 1973 / 1974 and 1979 / 1980 was gradually the demand for a "rational use of energy" and also marked the birth of the "municipal energy management" (KEM). With the popularity of the environmental movement in the 1990s , environmental and climate policy goals also became the subject of local politics. Municipal energy management has advanced to become an instrument for climate protection and CO 2 avoidance.

Especially in the recent past, rising energy prices, the intensified climate debate and the desolate situation of municipal households have given municipal energy management a further increase in importance.

Success stories

In rural areas there are numerous municipalities that have built up an independent energy supply through renewable energies as bioenergy villages . With the help of bioenergy , wind power and solar energy, these municipalities sometimes cover more than 100 percent of their electricity, heat and fuel consumption, and are therefore net energy exporters. The first bioenergy villages were Jühnde and Mauenheim (2006), numerous other municipalities use highly renewable energies, e.g. B. Freiamt , Güssing , Mertingen , Ostritz u. a.

Cities such as Prenzlau , Bürstadt , Emden , Heidelberg and Bonn are increasingly and successfully relying on regional and decentralized energy supplies from renewable energies.

Organization and practice

In larger municipalities there is often a municipal energy officer; in large cities, entire departments are usually concerned with the topic, whereas in smaller municipalities the tasks are often carried out as part of general building maintenance. Due to the limited technical and financial possibilities, energy management is often only carried out to a limited extent in smaller municipalities or is organized completely differently. In small municipalities, external service providers have to be commissioned much more frequently and integrated into the energy management system [2].

The task descriptions for energy management are very different. Three influencing factors have a decisive influence on the useful energy balance of buildings:

  • Building-related influencing factors such as location and geometry, quality of the building envelope and the size and arrangement of windows and doors are largely to be addressed during the planning phase of buildings.
  • The selection of the system technology and the energy sources, as well as the system selection for heating, ventilation and sanitary technology with the respective control technology supplements the technical sphere of influence.
  • Organizational tasks that have a user-related influence on the energy consumption are often more cost-effective than technical measures, but require time-consuming repetitions in order to guarantee lasting success.

In a broader version, the following activities could be included in energy management:

  • Reducing energy consumption in municipal properties
  • Optimization of street lighting and traffic lights
  • Energy procurement: Contract management if no public utility company has its own
  • Citizens' advice on energy saving
  • Citizen building advice: energy-saving building
  • Actions within the framework of local Agenda 21 :
    • Advertising for energy savings of all kinds
    • Participation and initiation of events on the topic
    • Announcement of energy saving competitions (e.g. in schools)
  • Land-use planning: Promotion of energy efficiency and renewable energies
  • Climate protection and CO 2 monitoring: drafting a local climate protection strategy
  • Renewable energy:
    • Information and funding depending on regional characteristics (wind, biomass, etc.)
    • Promotion of photovoltaics in general
    • Initiation of citizen solar systems.

The weighting is mainly based on local political requirements or on the initiative of the employees. According to a narrower view [2,4], energy management primarily includes reducing consumption in one's own property. This generally includes the following activities:

  • Consumption control: Consumption recording, weather adjustment, consumption evaluation
  • Energy procurement: review of supply contracts, energy purchasing
  • Building analysis: acquisition of important building data, determination of energy parameters, rough diagnosis, detailed diagnosis
  • Operational management of plants: operational monitoring, development of service instructions, advice and control of operating personnel
  • Optimization of use: optimal occupancy of buildings, system operation depending on the type and extent of occupancy, prevention of waste (securing operating equipment from being adjusted by unauthorized persons)
  • Training, clarification, reporting: training and motivation of operating staff, education and motivation of building users, further training of administrative employees, reporting, exchange of experiences, obtaining feedback
  • Planning of saving measures: creation of priority lists, economic and ecological evaluation, rehabilitation planning, financing planning
  • Accompanying investment measures: advice, control, optimize.

advantages

Municipalities are promoting the expansion of renewable energies due to several advantages:

  • Greater independence: From conventional energy suppliers and rising prices for electricity, natural gas, oil, etc. The expenditure for energy remains largely in the region and does not flow abroad.
  • Financial income: The municipality or a local public utility can generate income and profits by operating its own facilities. In the case of public facilities, the residents benefit directly; for facilities operated by commercial investors, the municipality can expect trade taxes
  • Local employment: Installation, maintenance and operation of renewable energy systems often mean jobs for local companies such as B. craftsmen, service technicians or raw material suppliers.
  • Image gain: Renewable energies stand for a modern, progressive energy supply. Competitions like the "Solarbundesliga" show the innovative spirit of municipalities.
  • Many municipalities use their commitment in the field of renewable energies as a tourist magnet. The bioenergy village of Jühnde in Lower Saxony or the Morbach energy landscape in Rhineland-Palatinate, for example, attract a large number of people who want to get an idea of ​​how a community can make itself energy self-sufficient.
  • New perspectives for the region: Since renewable energy projects are often implemented in rural regions, the resulting economic dynamism also means that young people are seeing more prospects locally and the rural exodus is decreasing.
  • Planning sovereignty: Municipalities have central planning sovereignty, particularly for photovoltaic ground-mounted systems. You determine the scope of implementation. Mayors share their experiences.

Local value creation

The decentralized expansion of renewable energies generates added value of almost 6.8 billion euros in German cities and communities, according to the Institute for Ecological Economic Research (IÖW). The area-wide and decentralized expansion of renewable energies in Germany is all the more profitable for municipalities, the more plants, operating companies, manufacturers or suppliers are located there. Municipalities of all sizes can generate significant added value by means of decentralized, renewable energies, for example through tax and lease income, company profits and jobs, as well as by saving fossil fuels, according to the IÖW study.

Albert Filbert, CEO of HEAG Südhessische Energie AG based in Darmstadt, confirms this trend: "The regions and municipalities are increasingly recognizing the importance of active and far-sighted services of general interest that best correspond to the economic and ecological interests of the community," said Filbert. Increased commitment in the areas of renewable energies and energy efficiency offers the opportunity to participate in economic success, to finance important municipal projects and budget relief, to secure the location, jobs and local added value.

But it is not only large municipal utilities that benefit from the switch to renewable energies, but also rural areas in particular due to the decentralized structure. This is shown by the example of the Rhein-Hunsrück district in Rhineland-Palatinate. "We started with renewable energies in 1999 and since then there has been no stopping us," reports District Administrator Bertram Fleck (CDU). Today 1500 regenerative energy systems cover almost 60 percent of the electricity demand in the region. "In a few years' time we will be an electricity exporter, generating 14.6 million euros in municipal added value per year," emphasizes Fleck.

Procedure and problem

Controlling is generally seen as a central task in the optimization of communal properties [2,3,4]. Classically, this is understood to mean the recording of consumption in every property [3]. At least once a year with the utility bill, we recommend recording up to 14 days, the consumption values ​​are compared with the value of the previous period and possible causes are searched for larger deviations. All consumption for space heating is to be viewed as weather-dependent and has to be adjusted. For this purpose, the consumption is related to the so-called degree day number and is as “consumption per degree day” or multiplied by the long-term degree day average as “adjusted average consumption”, independent of weather and comparable. Typically, the adjusted average consumption is related to the heated building area and compared as consumption kWh / m 2 a with table values ​​[1] or with other buildings. This comparison of the so-called area parameters is often referred to as a “benchmark”.

Again and again very big problems arise with this method when comparing properties that are too different. Even with the still very comparable operation in schools, a distinction still has to be made between school type, building age class and technical details such as the type of hot water supply or the size and equipment of gyms. Even then, a precise classification of the consumption in certain properties is often not possible, changes in consumption are not very significant and result in few approaches to realizing potential savings.

Technical systems

With the possibilities of today's EDP systems, energy data management has emerged as an extended controlling approach. Either the consumption recording is carried out with automatic consumption meters networked to a central computer system (so-called meter management systems) very frequently up to every minute and allows the recording of so-called load profiles. Or there is also a restriction on energy consumption and high-resolution operating data of all larger systems such as flow or room temperatures are recorded [2]. Technically, this is carried out directly by the heating controllers, networked to a so-called building management system (GLT), since all measured variables from the systems for the control task are already available here. The more densely the system data is recorded, the easier and faster it is to check the usual optimization deficits such as the precise setting of lowering times and heating curves.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Success stories from renewable energy municipalities
  2. ↑ Advantages of renewable energies in municipalities
  3. ↑ Press release Renewable Energies Agency
  4. ↑ Selection of outliers with key figures . energie-einsparcontracting.de. Archived from the original on October 19, 2007. Retrieved June 13, 2019.

literature

Web links