AUDIT-PLUS

Project Info

In the context of continuously increasing fuel prices, energy efficiency (EE) has been highlighted in several EU strategic plans as key to maintaining the EU’s competitive edge. However, industry does not perceive EE as a critical factor for business sustainability due to lack of knowledge and prioritisation of resources.

Industry represents 25.6% of the EU final energy consumption and 50% of that energy is demanded by Energy Intensive Industries (EII). The goal of LIFE AUDIT-PLUS is to set up and manage multi-actor local groups at EU level to act as sole intermediary for 82 EII facing the implementation of EE measures after an energy audit (and in this way to achieve 303GWh/year of Final Energy Savings). The project focuses, firstly, on Castellon’s ceramic sector (Spain), where cogeneration with Natural Gas is critical. The increase in Natural Gas and CO2 costs is causing companies to put their employees in RTER. Synergies with the ceramics sector can be found in the pharmaceutical and food-processing sectors, where cogeneration is also key.

The project focuses, secondly, on Cork, where seven out of the top ten global pharmaceutical companies are located, and on Galicia (Spain) and Poland, as two of the eight EU economies most relevant in the food-processing sector. The consortium is composed of not-for-profit industry-led research organisations and consulting and engineering companies that will: address and discuss EII’s energy efficiency levers of change and identify sensitivities and synergies in the business environment, transform available technical and regulatory knowledge into useful content for EII (i.e., transform it into a formal proposal for monitoring and follow-up after audit measure implementation), and accompany EII at any stage of the EE measure implementation by providing a 9-month free-of-charge service. In the 5 years after the project ends, 217 companies will receive support from LIFE AUDIT-PLUS.