Rawlplug S A : How are we saving energy? Smartly and with the environment in mind

Over the next couple of months, Rawlplug's facility in Wrocław will be implementing a number of projects focused on one goal: improving energy consumption efficiency.

Some of the ideas, such as reducing the boiler plant parameters outside working hours, have already been implemented. This year, however, many more changes are in store for us.

"At this stage, our primary goal is to make energy consumption at the facility even more efficient ," says Rafał Widajewicz, Administrative Director. "We can achieve this by managing it smartly, reasonably and appropriately, which is why we are planning to introduce a permanent energy consumption monitoring system in February. It will be made available to all heads of departments."

Chilled water and battery to store photovoltaic energy

Monitoring, reducing consumption and saving energy is one thing. Another thing is introducing new solutions, based as much as possible on alternative sources. Buildings B and C will be heated by a separate, automatically controlled electric boiler plant, powered in part by photovoltaics, which will allow us to avoid losing heat during its transmission and to improve the performance of the whole installation. Building A is ultimately planned to be served with heat recovered from generator units. The same energy source will also be used for shop floor ventilation.

Starting mid this year, chilled water will be used to recover heat and to cool the production shop, including the injection moulding machines working there. This solution will be advantageous not only for Rawlplug, but also for the natural environment, as these types of systems are by far more environmentally friendly than traditional ones. The icing on the cake will be the system of batteries serving as a buffer for electricity from photovoltaic panels.

We're not stopping there, however...

...because we are also upgrading the heat pump feeding the ventilation system in the manual assembly area and in the new injection moulding shop, and we are having all ventilation systems parameterised to the optimum settings. Plans for the nearest future include replacing the compressors with more efficient ones, fitted with systems of mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, and ensuring smooth energy efficiency scale-up. The photovoltaic plant at the facility will also be expanded, to 1.7 MW. You can read more about Rawlplug's journey towards the sun HERE.