Siemens 2012 Annual Report Download - page 49

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, 
Italy’s most advanced brick-making plant, located
in the town of Alfonsine, showcases the potential of
energy-efficient technologies. Thanks to our highly
efficient asynchronous motors, the amount of power
consumed by the factory’s electric drives – 170 motors
with a total capacity of 1,065 kilowatts are in opera-
tion on the drying line alone – has been slashed by
500,000 kilowatt-hours. Investment costs were amor-
tized within a short time. The result? Not only have
costs been cut; the plant’s environmental footprint has
also been reduced.
Saving electricity and using
it more efficiently
, , ..
With more than 1,000 stores in North America,
Michaels is the largest supplier of arts and crafts mer-
chandise in the U.S. Energy is the company’s second-
highest line-item expense, after labor costs. With this
in mind, Michaels has equipped nearly all its stores
with our RCS energy management platform. Intelligent
sensors and software operate on a real-time basis
to monitor and regulate heating, cooling, lighting and
humidity – resulting in energy savings of some 25%.
Balancing supply
and demand
 / ’ ,  
We’re building the first submarine direct-current grid
connection in the Irish Sea. With a voltage of 600 kilo-
volts, this link will surpass the previous record of
500 kilovolts. The low-loss high-voltage direct-current
(HVDC) transmission system will connect Hunterston,
near Glasgow on Scotland’s western coast, with
Connah’s Quay, in northwestern England. The link,
which will have a capacity of 2,200 megawatts, is
scheduled to go into operation at the end of 2015.
Building low-loss
power superhighways
Siemens RCS
Energy management
for retailers
Option: adjust consumption
to changing market prices
Perceived improvement
of indoor climate
Electricity bills cut by % - %
Electric motors for a brick factory
, kWh
in annual savings
Cost amortization
after only six months
Connected load of approximately
, kW
Efficiency class I E
Western link HVDC connection
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Ensuring a reliable
power supply
The foremost aim of all the measures that are
bringing about sustainable change in the energy
system must be to ensure the reliable availability of
energy – at all times and at prices that are afford-
able for all. Blackouts must be avoided, and the
international competitiveness of industry must not
be endangered by excessive energy costs. That’s
why the various measures comprising the pieces of
the energy puzzle require careful planning and
implementation. Only if these measures find broad
public acceptance and fit together perfectly will the
restructuring of the energy system be a success and
the solutions deployed succeed on international
markets.
Boosting the efficiency of
conventional power plants
When the wind subsides or clouds cover the sun,
fluctuations in power output must be offset fast –
for example, by using combined cycle power plants.
In less than 30 minutes, such plants can be gener-
ating enough power for a city the size of Berlin. As
the world’s most efficient model – from Siemens –
shows, combined cycle plants can reach an effi-
ciency of almost 61% when converting natural gas
into electricity, and waste heat can be used for
heating. In many countries, coal will remain a key
pillar of power generation for years to come. Coal-
fired plants can also be made much cleaner and
more efficient. What’s more, CO2 can be separated
from waste gas, stored underground or used for
industrial purposes. Researchers are working on
converting CO2 into methane and the raw materials
needed to produce biofuels and bioplastics.
Balancing supply
and demand
Often, it doesn’t matter if the power for a refriger-
ated warehouse or an air conditioning system is
shut off briefly – just as it’s hardly noticeable if an
elevator is moving a little more slowly than usual.
These are just a few of the many possibilities for
cutting energy consumption. Such demand man-
agement eases the burden on power grids. Our
researchers are now developing building auto mation
systems that adapt energy consumption to price
fluctuations in real time, flattening demand peaks.
Offering intelligent
financing solutions
If companies, towns and cities are to cut their
energy consumption even when budgets are tight,
they’ll need intelligent financing solutions. One
proven approach is our energy-saving performance
contracting – a combination of consulting, instal-
lation and financing services. Customers are not
required to make any upfront investment; project
costs are amortized with the energy savings achieved.
Using this model, we’ve upgraded more than
4,500 facilities worldwide – generating savings of
roughly €1 billion.
Developing and expanding
energy storage facilities
When the weather changes, so does the output of
wind and solar installations. That’s why facilities that
can store excess energy for hours or even weeks are
indispensable. One promising technology is electro-
lysis, which uses surplus energy to produce hydro-
gen, an energy carrier that can be fed into the natural
gas grid, stored in subterranean caverns, reconverted
into electricity and used in industrial processes or
fuel-cell vehicles. Batteries in buildings and electric
cars can also act as intermediate energy storage
devices. We’re conducting research in all these fields.
Smart grids: Making power
grids more intelligent
Fifteen years ago, there were only a few hundred
energy producers in Germany. In the future, there
will be thousands, generating power from solar, wind
and biomass installations and residential cogenera-
tion units. Energy consumers are increasingly becom-
ing producers too – “prosumers.” This development,
coupled with the growing use of fluctuating renew-
ables, is making smart grids indispensable. Using
sensors, variable network components and self-organ -
izing software modules, smart grids maintain a
balance between production and consumption. We’re
testing these grids in Germany’s Allgäu region, where
private producers are generating over three times
as much electricity as they use.
Making renewables
competitive
If half of Germany’s energy is to come from re-
newable sources by 2030 (and some 80% by 2050),
then these must be competitive without being
subsidized. For wind power in particular, this goal
will soon be reality. We’re currently pushing inno-
vations that are expected to make electricity from
wind power as economical as energy from coal.
Our innovations range from scimitar-shaped rotor
blades and gearless turbines to adaptive software
that optimally adjusts wind loads, automated
production processes and the longest rotor blades
currently in operation worldwide for the most
efficient offshore wind turbines on the market.
Saving electricity and using
it more efficiently
The cleanest energy is always the energy that’s not
used. Industry offers considerable potential for
savings. Electric motors – for pumps and drives, for
example – account for nearly two-thirds of indus-
trial power consumption. Our energy-saving motors
and intelligent controls slash power consumption
by up to 60% and pay for themselves in under two
years. In the area of transportation, electric motors –
in buses, trains and cars – are about three times as
efficient as combustion engines. In buildings, which
consume 40% of the power required worldwide,
substantial savings can be achieved by using insu-
lation, heat pumps, intelligent building techno-
logies and efficient lighting systems. Household
appliances also harbor huge savings potential.
Today’s advanced models use less than half the
power needed by their predecessors in the 1990s.
Building low-loss
power superhighways
Renewable resources, like wind on the high seas
and sun in warm regions, are best harvested where
they’re most abundant. And that’s why long-distance
transmission networks must be expanded – across
national borders and via underground cables and
highly efficient power superhighways based on
high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) transmission
technology. An HVDC line we installed in China is
showing how a link based on this technology can
transport 5,000 megawatts – the output of five
large power plants – across a distance of 1,400 kilo-
meters with a loss of only about 5%. With conven-
tional alternating-current power lines, losses would
be two to three times higher. And HVDC transmis-
sion technology can also be used offshore: an HVDC
link is now transporting green electricity from the
Spanish mainland to Mallorca.