(Tiper Stock Exchange) – Facilitate energy audits in SMEs, map consumption, identify the most appropriate efficiency measures for the different production contexts: these are the potentials of ATHENA4SME, the IT tool developed by AENEAS, in collaboration with the Engineering School of the University of Basilicata, presented this morning in Rome at the headquarters of Confcommercio during the event “Tools for energy efficiency in small and medium-sized enterprises”.
The application, created within the awareness plan for PMI created in collaboration with the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security, it is available to all interested companies in open source mode (subject to registration) through the ENEA Audit 102 portal and represents an additional tool for promoting energy audits in small and medium-sized enterprises companies, together with the guidelines for the drafting of energy audits, already elaborated within the LEAP4SME Horizon Project coordinated by ENEA.
“The tool, designed in the Excel environment, is an important tool for evaluating the degree of energy efficiency and helps small and medium-sized enterprises to have a greater awareness of the use of energy in the various production cycles”, he explains Marcello Salvio, head of the ENEA Laboratory of Energy Efficiency economic sectors.
“The lack of knowledge and the absence of useful tools for carrying out energy audits in SMEs are among the major obstacles to the diffusion of energy efficiency in the Italian production sector: from industry to the tertiary sector up to transport”, comments the researcher . “Lhe barriers are of various nature. For example, there are economic and financial problems, because SMEs often do not have sufficient resources to invest in energy efficiency nor do they have easy access to credit. Another relevant aspect is the lack of skills on the subject, generally due to a lack of professionalism of the technical personnel, who are more attentive to production and process aspects than to the energy sector. Finally, the still lack of knowledge of the tools useful for promoting the creation of energy audits and the implementation of the interventions identified by them weighs heavily”, concludes Salvio.
ENEA and the University of Basilicata have defined the structure together, the functionality and specific input-output of the tool, which is able to evaluate the energy consumption of the company through the analysis of the energy performance indexes of the various activities. Also thanks to a questionnaire filled in by the end user, the tool makes it possible to identify the most advantageous energy efficiency measures, highlighting their cost/effectiveness. At the same time, it allows for the elaboration of an economic analysis of the planned and recommended interventions (with the calculation of the NPV[2]of the TIR[3]of Simple Payback[4]), also focusing attention on the environmental aspects of the diagnosis and on the water consumption correlated to the activities being diagnosed.
Finally, the application generates a report of all the analyzes carried out, offering a descriptive tool of the company’s general energy and environmental situation.
Today’s event in Rome – reads the official note – rrepresents the eighth stage of the Awareness and Assistance Plan for SMEs for the execution of energy diagnoses, now in its second year. ENEA has carried out training and information events and campaigns throughout the country to provide technical support to SMEs and interested stakeholders (EGE, ESCo, registered professionals, business consultants). Last year a ‘road show’ started from Rome which stopped in Portici (Naples), Ferentino (Frosinone), Rimini, Bari, Potenza and Milan and will continue throughout the 2023 touching four other centers along the main production districts of the country.