PInE provides funded professional energy audits to industrial manufacturing SMEs with the aim of implementing energy efficiency measures. The project comprises 3 main stages:

The Model

The project partners have defined a common model to be used in the auditing phase (both preliminary and full audit) that includes a set of benchmarks, calculation tools for operation units, industrial plants and pay-back period, checklists for scouts and auditors structured to be easily replicable also in countries which are not involved in the project. The model respects harmonised standards such as the Energy Management Systems (EN 50001:20119 Energy efficiency services (EN 15900:2010), the Energy Audit schemes in phase of standardization from CEN and the other existing European standards on energy audits. In addition, the PINE model has been adapted to the economic and legal peculiarities of each country (mainly concerning local energy prices and public support to energy audit in SMEs). A guidebook and auditing tools have been developed to provide scouts and auditors with an extremely practical and focused tool kit for the implementation of energy audits.

Scouting

Scouts will select 280 SMEs (40 enterprises in each European country participating in the project) for the preliminary auditing phase. The preliminary audit phase is addressed to identify the energy use of SMEs, define the areas of significant consumptions, assign priorities and sort out the companies where the full energy audit is needed.
This first step audit will therefore identify potential for action and willingness to implement the system on their premises.

Auditing

Among the SMEs participating in the preliminary audit phase, 140 SMEs (20 enterprise per each European country participating in the project) will be selected to benefit from a full energy auditing.
The energy audit service will be conducted by professional technical experts onsite and at the desk to provide a better understanding of major energy consuming systems and to gain insight into short and long-term energy consumption patterns in processes and infrastructure.
At the end of the audit, a technical report will recommend to each enterprise measures suitable for short-term implementation and low investments and for medium- to long-term implementation with relatively more substantial investments.
Auditors will also support companies in overcoming technical, economical, organizational and legal issues that could impede the implementation of the measures suggested.
Audits are completely free of charge for SMEs as they are funded by the IEE Programme.

PINE Project leaflet....

For further information about that project, please visit www.pineaudit.eu