SCHWENK relies on IngSoft InterWatt for future-proof energy management

The SCHWENK Building Materials Group is one of the longest-established family-run businesses in the German building materials industry. Since its foundation in 1847, the group has developed into an internationally active supplier operating in the sectors of cement, concrete, sand and gravel, concrete pumps and the circular economy.

SCHWENK now manages its energy management for the concrete, sand & gravel and concrete pumps divisions using IngSoft InterWatt. This system centrally monitors around 150 energy-consuming properties across some 30 organisational units, approximately 700 meters and 900 meter readings.

From an Excel solution to an integrated energy management system

SCHWENK has been operating an energy management system for many years. However, data collection and analysis had previously been carried out predominantly using Microsoft Excel.

As the company’s structure grew and requirements increased, maintaining and analysing the energy data became increasingly time-consuming, recalls Niklas Koch, Energy Manager at SCHWENK:

“The operational effort involved with our previous Excel solution was becoming ever greater and more complex. The demands on energy management will continue to grow, meaning that the consistent mapping and analysis of around 150 diverse sites would have been very difficult to achieve.”

Consequently, there was a desire to use a suitable software solution to reduce the manual workload, increase the level of detail from annual to monthly figures, and enable the integrated tracking of targets, action plans and measures. The aim was to make energy management at SCHWENK more interactive. At the same time, reports and analyses were to be made available much more quickly so that the company could respond promptly to any anomalies.

Clear requirements for the software

When selecting a suitable system, the focus was primarily on the following requirements:

• Mapping of a complex organisational structure with multiple hierarchical levels
• Multi-client user management
• Flexible site classifications and different meter structures
• Automation, wherever possible, of the collection of relevant data, such as consumption figures, production volumes and weather data
• Smart mapping of targets, action plans and measures

Following an evaluation of various solutions available on the market, the decision was made to choose IngSoft InterWatt:
“IngSoft InterWatt was able to fully meet our requirements and also had an IT structure that suited us, as well as offering the best value for money,” said Energy Manager Niklas Koch.

 

Rapid implementation and structured roll-out

According to SCHWENK, the implementation of IngSoft InterWatt went smoothly. The software was up and running after just a few weeks.

Thanks to the structure import function, the company structure and master data could be set up quickly. Importing the relevant energy data was also possible without significant additional effort, thanks to the data subscriptions that had been set up.

As with many comprehensive energy management systems, advanced functions are being introduced gradually. These include, in particular, performance indicators as well as the future use of the modules for targets, action plans and measures.

High degree of automation in data collection

A key advantage of IngSoft InterWatt for SCHWENK is the extensive automation of data collection. The data collected includes, amongst other things:

• Electricity (purchase, generation and feed-in)
• Natural gas
• Liquefied petroleum gas
• Heating oil
• Diesel

The data is sourced from various sources:

• Data subscriptions via email from the SAP system
• Data subscriptions from internal reporting systems
• Connection of Janitza meters using IngSoft InterWatt Edge – a software-based data logger
• Manual meter readings

Today, 90% of all meter data is already collected automatically. Only around 10% of the data is recorded manually or processed retrospectively to correct erroneous values.

For SCHWENK’s specific use case, minor mappings were also implemented for the data subscriptions.

Greater transparency and reduced effort

SCHWENK is particularly keenly aware of the benefits in its day-to-day operations.

“Significantly less operational effort in data collection, clear documentation of efficiency measures and a standardised system for mapping energy data,” says Niklas Koch, highlighting these as particular benefits.

The centralised database allows energy data to be analysed and compared across sites.
At the same time, reports and analyses that can be generated at short notice and are available promptly enable a rapid response to outliers.

The following functions are used regularly in particular:

• Analyses
• Dashboards
• Structure import
• Meter readings and measurement values
• Performance indicators

In future, the ‘Goals and Action Plans’ and ‘Measures’ modules are also to be used.