Bodensee Schiffsbetriebe
Energy management ahoy
Bodensee-Schiffsbetriebe (BSB) operates a large fleet of passenger ships, a ferry connection between Friedrichshafen and Romanshorn (Switzerland), as well as the port facilities in Constance, Lindau and Friedrichshafen on this popular vacation and recreational destination. In addition, there are several landing stages on the German shore of Lake Constance as well as infrastructure, tank facilities and buildings, jetties and piers. The BSB was founded in 1824 and has been a subsidiary of Stadtwerke Konstanz since 2003.
Out of a sense of responsibility towards the Lake Constance ecosystem as a drinking water reservoir for over four million people and a habitat for water birds, animals and plants, BSB has been voluntarily validated in accordance with EMAS since 2001. The continuous reduction of energy consumption and the expansion of sustainable mobility are important core components of this.
Cast off for energy data collection with econ4
In the fall of 2022, BSB was also affected by the gas shortage in Germany due to the war in Ukraine. This prompted the company to record and monitor relevant energy consumption in the econ4 energy management software in future. "For reporting purposes, we had to move away from the previous manual recording method at relatively short notice because we needed higher data quality. We also wanted to reduce the effort involved," says Charlotta Skoglund, Environmental Management Officer at BSB, describing the motivation.
econ4 was quickly chosen because the system had already proven its worth at BSB's parent company, Stadtwerke Konstanz, since 2019. Back then, Constance was the first German city to declare a climate emergency. Stadtwerke Konstanz works closely with the city to achieve its climate protection goals through energy management with continuous energy monitoring, including for municipal buildings.
"The search for a suitable software solution proved to be a challenge. The aim was to map the entire process diversity of the Stadtwerke Group - from pool management to numerous energy processes to Lake Constance shipping - as well as the specific requirements of the city of Constance in the context of municipal energy management as precisely as possible. At the same time, the system had to enable differentiated area management and still offer a user-friendly and intuitive interface," recalls Moritz Gänß, Energy Manager at Stadtwerke Konstanz. Because econ4 was able to meet all these requirements, the municipal utilities chose econ solutions as their strategic partner.
Since then, the energy data has been fed into the software via various interfaces, some of which are automated. Analog energy and water meters are still recorded manually each month via the econ mobile app using a QR code at the respective measuring point. The municipal utilities also use the econ case mobile metering system for temporary sub-metering.
Energy data collection picks up speed
As a subsidiary of Stadtwerke Konstanz, BSB did not necessarily have to adopt econ. But there were good reasons for doing so: the system had already proven itself in the parent company for energy reporting. Another plus point was that econ4 had an API interface with which BSB can import data from other systems and use it to calculate key figures.
Together with the municipal utilities' energy management team, environmental management officer Charlotta Skoglund drew up a measurement concept for BSB and its relevant energy measuring points. It includes both the measuring points for the fleet of ships and for BSB's port facilities.
It was important to include third-party quantities, such as those going to a tenant who operates an ice cream parlor in the port or a bistro on board a ship.
"We have to deal with a relatively large number of interfaces both internally at BSB and externally, and the intervals at which measurement data is recorded can also vary depending on the measuring point and application. econ offers us the flexibility we need for this," says Charlotta Skoglund.
On course for digitalized energy monitoring
BSB is currently gradually replacing the analog internal electricity meters with digital models in order to further automate data collection. "This involves a certain amount of organizational effort - especially on the ships, where we have to do this out of season. We haven't reached our goal yet, but we are working on further refining BSB's energy data collection," says Skoglund, describing the situation. "With econ, we already have the data available at the right time and in the quality we need - whether for internal and external billing or for incorporation into our environmental management system."
The recorded energy data is also used by the environmental manager to create the annual reports in econ4 for calculating the greenhouse gas balance.
"As the parent company, we are planning ISO 50001 certification for two other subsidiaries. We will also be using the econ software for this. It was already a criterion in the selection process in 2018 that the software solution should include an ISO 50001 assistant and action tool," adds Moritz Gänß, Energy Manager at Stadtwerke.
"Ships, ports and infrastructure with internal and external consumers - we have to deal with many interfaces and requirements. econ4 offers us the necessary flexibility."
Charlotta Skoglund, Environmental management officer of the Bodensee-Schiffsbetriebe