March 15, 2023
With two ordinances, the German government has adopted short- and medium-term measures for energy savings: The EnSikuMaV (Short-Term Energy Supply Assurance Measures Ordinance) has been in effect since September 1 and primarily affects landlords and regulations for public buildings. Since October 1, the EnSimiMaV (Medium-term Energy Supply Assurance Measures Ordinance) now also obliges owners and companies to increase energy efficiency.
The basis of the two regulations is Russia's attack on Ukraine, which is contrary to international law. The already tense situation on the energy markets has worsened drastically in recent months. As early as March 30, 2022, the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection declared an early warning stage, followed on June 22, 2022 by the Gas emergency plan alert level.
Currently, the energy supply is guaranteed, but the situation is unpredictable and the federal government does not rule out a further deterioration of the situation. The energy saving regulations are therefore intended to prevent the occurrence of an emergency situation in any case. The motto here is: every kilowatt hour counts.
Energy cost savings of 10.8 billion euros could be achieved by EnSikuMaV and EnSimiMaV over the next two years.
For building owners, §§ 2 and 3 of the EnSimiMaV are of importance. The affected citizens, who own systems for heat generation through
Erdgas are obliged to examine and implement measures for heating optimization. The optimization measures must be identified by clearly defined expert persons and implemented by September 15, 2024. In the process, the need for hydraulic balancing must also be examined.
But there are exceptions: The obligations of the ordinance do not apply if buildings are managed as part of a standardized energy management system and in buildings with standardized building automation. In addition, the obligation does not apply if a comparable audit has already been carried out in the past two years before October 1, 2022, and no need for optimization was identified.
Companies must deal in detail with Section 4 of the EnSimiMaV and are obliged to implement energy efficiency measures if their consumption exceeds ten gigawatt hours per year. All measures that are identified in the energy audit according to E-DLG or through an energy or environmental management system and are economically feasible must be implemented. The time to implement the measures is not set too generously. Energy efficiency must be optimized within 18 months. Companies are also required to have the measures implemented, as well as those implemented due to a lack of cost-effectiveness, confirmed by certifiers or energy auditors.
The basis for a uniform and comprehensible evaluation of economic efficiency is the underlying standard DIN EN 17463. Limited to an evaluation period of a maximum of 15 years, a positive net present value must result after a maximum of 20 percent of the useful life.
Numerous owners and companies are now in a tight spot. And even if the exemption regulations apply due to an existing building automation system, there may well be further opportunities for optimizing efficiency in building operation, which are always economical in the current situation. A review therefore makes sense in almost all cases. Unnoticed potential lies dormant in many buildings.
Even independently of regulations such as EnSimiMaV, buildings have been facing ever-increasing demands for some time. The keywords digitalization and sustainability and efficiency were the defining issues in the real estate industry even before the energy supply crisis.
The most important foundation within the plethora of challenges and mandatory regulations is always the same: a holistic database and connectivity. With the aedifion Cloud-Plattform all trades can be networked via a simple plug-and-play installation. Thanks to the open interfaces, third-party systems can be easily integrated and sustainability becomes a digital upgrade. For building managers and administrators, it becomes child's play to automatically and AI-based adjust the indoor climate to the outside temperature and manage ventilation according to occupancy.
The aedifion cloud platform helps to identify unnecessary energy consumption based on the monitoring data and intelligent analyses. Based on this, a catalog of recommended actions is created that optimizes efficiency in building operations.
In particular, the currently demanded heating optimizations basically almost always concern the settings that can be managed within an AI-based building control system all by themselves and according to demand.
Of course, other added values go hand in hand with centralized, high-performance software: lower maintenance effort, the reduction of operating costs, higher surface quality and the increase in sustainability are just a few of them.
