High energy prices are hitting energy-intensive industry harder than possibly ever before in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany. Even large companies are cutting back production and increasingly even talking about relocation. How can small and medium-sized companies survive the tense situation? For many, the usual practice of energy supply is being turned upside down, suppliers are not making offers, prices are enormous.
In many cases, the possibility of mitigating the cost situation on a large scale through short-term energy-saving measures is not realistic. However, Germany has long been one of the countries where energy is expensive, and therefore the legislature has already created opportunities for relief - depending on the industry, considerable rebates are possible. But the administrative effort and the necessary know-how are great, because unfortunately the legislator has made the underlying rules and regulations extremely diverse and complex. There are, however, service companies that have specialized in exploiting the subsidy possibilities as far as possible and, above all, in a legally secure manner.
An example of this is a powder coating company with a gas consumption of around 2.5 GWh per year, which had already applied for energy and electricity tax relief on its own initiative. The analysis of a professional energy service provider was able to achieve additional relief of around 5,800 euros per year through the process application alone. In addition, it was possible to achieve further relief for the natural gas used in a CHP unit, which had not previously been claimed. This resulted in an additional credit of around 4,700 euros for the customer. For a company that has not yet claimed any subsidies at all, the reimbursements would naturally be even higher. The topic of base load optimization also offers a lot of potential for reducing costs, but is not a carrier in terms of implementation. Nevertheless, there are now modern control systems that can optimize the startup and shutdown of machines in this regard with a certain degree of intelligence.
You can read more about this topic in the interview with an experienced energy service provider, and you can also find further interviews with energy-intensive companies from the hot-dip galvanizing and electroplating sectors here.