Aerial view of the industrial park area. © Rauman Meriteollisuuskiinteistöt Oy.
Seaside Industry Park is an industrial park focused on the marine industry located in Rauma. With an area of 43 hectares, the park has a total of 55,000 square metres of various production, office and storage facilities, and there are more than 30 companies renting space in the area.
In the park, consumption of commodities, such as electricity, is quite high, which puts the region under pressure to reduce consumption for economic and climate reasons. The park has tackled the challenge by creating a digital technology-based metering system that controls energy, electricity, heat, water, compressed air and gases.
The system provides up-to-date data on consumption, allowing companies to monitor and adjust processes so that they can save on both consumption and costs. The system also enables businesses to be invoiced according to actual consumption, instead of the previous estimated invoicing.
In addition, the system provides up-to-date information on leaks in water and gas pipelines, as well as faults in electricity and district heating, among other things. This will allow the problems to be detected and located quickly and will allow the necessary measures to be taken to correct the problem.
The project has taken a lot of time and work. The cooperation level of Rauman Meriteollisuuskiinteistöt Oy, which manages the industrial park, the software company ionSign Oy, which built a unique system from the beginning, has been an important help in the project. The aim of the operators is to make the system replicable so that it can be used in similar environments.
The system is built piece by piece
The measurement system is expanded in the industrial park area one building at a time. The activities carried out in 2021 have focused on integrating the paint shop and related facilities operating in the park into the system.
The tenant of the premises is one of the key players in the industrial park, Ermail Oy, which specialises in surface treatment. Ermail has recently obtained a user interface that currently provides up-to-date information on electricity, district heating and water consumption. The measurement points are located in different spaces, which enables monitoring the separate consumption of different spaces.
Electricity meters belonging to the system © Rauman Meriteollisuuskiinteistöt Oy.
In Ermail, there has been interest in the new system, even though it has only been in use for a short time. The opportunity to monitor the consumption of electricity and district heat has received special praise. The system has also helped the company to understand the consumption of production processes in a more concrete way.
“If, for example, the lights have remained on overnight, we can see it the next morning through the consumption data,” says Ermail's Quality Manager Petri Salminen. “With the system, we can identify the factors that cause the costs, allowing us to consider the possibilities of changing operating practices to reduce consumption.”
Benefits of using the system through modifying operating models
The system makes it possible to perform very concrete actions, such as turning off the lights or adjusting the interior temperature. Although the user interface has only been available to Ermail for a short time, the results show that considerable savings can be made, especially in terms of district heating and electricity, if the metering system is used effectively.
The employees of companies play an important role in generating savings. Employees need to adopt new practices in order to make savings.
According to Salminen, in order to make us of the full potential of the system, a broader review of the organisation's operating models and, if necessary, changes to them are also needed. Large-scale results are not achieved overnight, but companies need to take time to explore the potential for reducing consumption.
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Further information
- CEO Timo Luukkonen, Rauman Meriteollisuuskiinteistöt Oy, tel. +358 (0)40 550 1942, firstname.lastname@seasideindustry.fi
- development coordinator Saara Haaslahti, Rauman Meriteollisuuskiinteistöt Oy, tel. +358 (0)40 730 5487, firstname.lastname@seasideindustry.fi