We’ve summarized 2024 – our activities in numbers

We invite you to read our summary:

• What’s new at DB?
• 2024 in numbers – our technical projects
• What can industrial companies expect in 2025?
• Where have we been? Where are we going?
• Our presence in the media
• Charity activities
• Holiday wishes

What’s new at DB?

In 2024, we introduced two new collaboration opportunities – company energy audit updates and Thursdays with an engineer. We strive to respond to our clients’ current needs and expand our services to meet their expectations as effectively as possible.

This is why we first launched company energy audit updates. This service is designed for companies already implementing their energy-saving investment plans, who have previously conducted an energy audit and now want to update it using the latest data to meet Energy Regulatory Office (URE) requirements. How does it work?

You fill out a form and receive a list of documents we need to update your audit. Since this is an update, you must provide an energy audit conducted within the last four years. Then, we conduct an interview, remotely search for new opportunities, analyze the provided documents, prepare a report based on them, and deliver the updated audit along with the URE notification. The process is faster and more cost-effective.

Update your company energy audit

The second opportunity we introduced at the beginning of December is Thursdays with an engineer. These are free online meetings where you can discuss your facility’s energy-related challenges with our technical team. We strive to solve problems and provide guidance based on our extensive experience, gained not only through audits but also in designing and executing investments as a contractor. This one-hour consultation is an excellent chance to tap into our knowledge.

If you work at a medium or large industrial company and have a question or need clarification, feel free to book a session! It’s completely free :)

2024 in numbers – our technical projects

In 2024, we analyzed 114 modernization projects for companies in Poland and worldwide. We carried out projects in Poland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Spain, France, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Croatia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Canada, the USA, and China. We also collaborate with EFESO Management Consultants, an international consulting group, joining forces across 35 locations worldwide.

We’ve prepared a brief summary highlighting the largest and most interesting projects we worked on this year.

The largest modernization - EUR 9.4 mln - biogas plant

Cost: approx. EUR 9.4 million

Savings: approx. EUR 1.7 million annually

Payback period: approx. 5.5 years

In 2024, we conducted an energy audit for a municipal waste treatment facility. Based on its results, we identified one of the most interesting investments of the year: a biogas plant for bio-waste with an electric capacity of 3.0 MWh, coupled with the construction of a biogas storage facility. The projected cost of this investment exceeds EUR 9.4 million, and we estimate the payback period to be around 5.5 years.

This facility generates significant amounts of biomass from selective waste collection—over 50 tons of so-called “organic mass,” which includes compostable waste. This organic waste can serve as input for a bioreactor utilizing anaerobic fermentation. By implementing such an installation, the company not only processes waste and produces energy for its own needs but also has the potential to increase revenue by selling surplus electricity to the grid.

The shortest payback period - six months - elimination of leaks in the compressed air system

Cost: approx. EUR 47 thousand

Savings: approx. EUR 98.5 thousand annually

Payback period: about six months

For a company in the medical products manufacturing sector, we conducted a Walk-Through audit, during which we analyzed the compressed air system. It turned out that there were leaks in the system, causing compressed air to escape into the environment. These air losses forced compressors to operate at higher efficiency to compensate for pressure drops, resulting in increased electricity consumption.

In this particular facility, the annual consumption of compressed air exceeds 23 million m³. During our team’s visit, the leaks were responsible for a loss of about 30% of the compressed air in the system. Assuming we can reduce the level of leaks in the system to around 10%, the savings would amount to approximately 709 MWh annually in electricity used to power the compressors.

Eliminating leaks in systems is generally a low-complexity, low-cost project. In this case, the estimated cost is about EUR 47 thousand and the annual savings are about EUR 98.5 thousand. Reducing leaks in such systems should be a regular maintenance activity because leaks can never be completely eliminated, and new ones may appear over time. It’s important to inspect your facility’s systems and plan for regular checks.

The largest emission reduction and the greatest amount of energy recovery - heat recovery

Cost: approx. EUR 1.6 million

Savings: approx. EUR 800 thousand annually

Payback Period: approx. 2 years

Emission Reduction: approx. 2,300 tons of CO2 annually

Amount of Saved Energy: approx. 7,600 MWh annually

For a client in the automotive industry, manufacturing components for passenger cars, we conducted an energy audit of their facility, where we identified 19 different actions that could profitably improve the energy efficiency of the plant. One of the measures analyzed was heat recovery from the foundry's cast iron components, which need to be cooled to ambient temperature after casting.

Until now, the cast components were cooled naturally. To assess their heating potential, our engineers conducted a test which revealed that one rack of castings could boil 1 m³ of water in 40 minutes! By utilizing the recovered heat to power an absorption chiller, the production of chilled water used in the technological process has become more efficient and consumes less electricity.

The thermal energy saved from the heat recovery process amounts to over 7,600 MWh annually. This is the equivalent of the energy used by more than 4,200 households in Poland each year. Until now, the cooling required was generated using electricity. Thanks to this investment, this electricity will no longer be drawn from the National Power Grid, meaning it does not need to be produced, and consequently, no CO2 will be emited.

How to calculate the amount of CO2 saved in this case?

Each year, a national emission factor is determined, which allows for estimating how much emissions were released into the atmosphere during the production of energy from various sources in the National Power Grid. If the energy production was primarily based on coal, the emission factor would be higher compared to energy produced mostly from renewable sources. Based on this factor and the amount of electricity saved that the plant would normally have used to produce cooling for the technological process, we calculated that this investment will contribute to a reduction of approximately 2,300 tons of CO2 annually after the modernization is implemented.

The largest LNG-powered cogeneration unit in southern Poland – the next stage of investment at Schumacher Packaging

At the Schumacher Packaging facility in Myszków, we successfully completed the second energy modernization, which significantly increased the factory's energy efficiency. With the implementation of a modern cogeneration installation, alongside several other projects, the facility is now able to produce nearly 9 MW of electricity on its own, covering approximately 80% of the total energy demand of the entire site. The cogeneration unit was commissioned in September 2024, and its cost will be recouped in about 3 years!

This year, we worked for many different sectors, including the mineral, metallurgical, chemical, food, and automotive industries. We visited companies specializing in glass and wood processing, battery component manufacturing, food processing, and animal feed production. And we’re still not done! 
Among the technologies we implemented for our clients were:

• Industrial heat pumps,
• Modernization of local boiler rooms,
• Modernization of compressor stations and compressed air systems,
• Process automation improvements,
• Replacement of machines with energy-efficient models,
• Heat recovery (from process heat, emitted gases, local energy sources, etc.), along with designing heat utilization methods,
• Modernization of refrigeration systems,
• Thermal insulation of installations,
• Cogeneration and trigeneration, including biogas-based systems,
• Adjusting ordered power and changing tariffs,
• Installation of inverters and their control,
• Renewable energy sources (solar photovoltaics).

Strategic framework agreement with F.S.O. Energy Hub, part of the OKAM Group

At the end of November 2024, the management board of DB Energy S.A. signed a strategic framework agreement for comprehensive support in energy efficiency projects for entities within the OKAM Group. The agreement was concluded for 10 years.

Under the agreement, DB Energy S.A. will be responsible, among other things, for conducting energy audits, providing advisory services on energy generation, trading, and distribution, preparing project concepts, and conducting financial analyses for individual projects carried out by OKAM. DB Energy S.A. engineers will also be responsible for managing investment projects to achieve optimal financial outcomes.

"Collaboration with F.S.O. Energy Hub gives us the opportunity to focus on efficient energy sources and their proper distribution through well-designed networks and connections from the very early stages of investment. This also applies to large-scale development projects, where we co-create entire housing estates. The right mix of sources allows us to optimize not only emissions but also energy costs. This benefits not only businesses but also residential consumers, who can benefit from solutions previously unavailable in residential construction." says Dr. Piotr Danielski, Vice President and co-founder of DB Energy S.A.

What can industrial companies expect in 2025?

Energy audit of the company – audit year

In 2016, the Energy Efficiency Act came into force, implementing the European Directive EED 2012/27/EU. Based on this, all large enterprises in Poland were obliged to conduct periodic energy audits of their companies. The first audits had to be completed by the end of 2017. Companies subject to this obligation must repeat the audit every 4 years and notify the Energy Regulatory Office (URE) about it.

As a result, large enterprises that completed the audit in 2017 should have conducted it again in 2021 and will be required to do so in the upcoming year, 2025. We have prepared several materials on this topic that will help clarify any doubts regarding the audit. You will find answers to questions such as:

• What is an energy audit?
• Who is required to conduct it?
• Where can the energy audit be performed?
• What should be done with the findings after the audit?

Click and check our knowledge base: Is an energy audit of the company mandatory?

We also run a series called "Green Transformation in Light of the Law," in which attorney Maciej Stępień answered questions regarding the penalties that may be imposed on entrepreneurs by the President of the Energy Regulatory Office for failing to conduct an energy audit of the company.

Here’s the blog post: Penalty of the President of the Energy Regulatory Office for failure to conduct an energy audit of the company

Where have we been? Where are we going?

Events of 2024 and 2025

Events in 2024

We have participated in some of the largest events in Poland as participants, partners, or sponsors. Here are a few of them:

• EuroPOWER and OZE POWER
• MEATing 2024 Congress
• Sustainable Economy Summit
• Battery Forum & PIME Battery Summit Poland
• X Polish Chemistry Congress
• X DISE Energy Congress
• XX Energy Fair in Jachranka
• POLAGRA FOOD 2024
• Conference on Optimization of Energy and Utility Consumption in Wrocław

Events in 2025

Our calendar is slowly starting to fill up. What do we have planned?

• March 13-14, 2025 - XXIII Scientific and Technical Conference on Efficient Energy Management in Industry in Zawiercie
• March 25-26, 2025 - Polish Climate Congress 2025 in Warsaw
• April 23-25, 2025 - XVII European Economic Congress in Katowice
• June 9-10, 2025 - 10th Forum of Intelligent Development in Uniejów
• September 2025 - DISE Energy Congress in Wrocław
• September 2025 - Energy Fair in Jachranka
• October 2025 - Energy Days in Katowice

This list is not final, but one thing is certain – there will be many opportunities for discussions on profitable decarbonization and energy efficiency!

Our media presence
CIRE

In 2024, we continued our collaboration with the CIRE.pl portal, where we manage our own thematic section called Energy Efficiency. This year, we wrote over 30 articles and expert opinions on green transformation, energy, financing energy-saving projects, audits, and industrial investments. The reach of our articles on CIRE has been as high as 340,000 people! We will also be present here in 2025.

Here is our section: Energy Efficiency

LinkedIn Bulletin

In October, we launched a newsletter on LinkedIn, which gained over 300 subscribers within the first 24 hours! We have already published 11 editions, which you can find here.

"Every Tuesday, we publish content related to technical, legal, financial, and environmental topics, focusing on areas where we are experts. We aim to show that decarbonization can be profitable and explain how to implement it to achieve maximum benefits. Each week, our team creates and comments on expert content, presenting it in an easy-to-understand form. We are aware that not everyone is familiar with the energy-related terms we use daily, so it is a great opportunity to break them down and offer our followers interesting material to read with their Tuesday coffee." says Karolina Kozak, Marketing Specialist at DB Energy.

Here is our bulletin: Profitable Decarbonization

Newsletter

We have also launched our newsletter, which reaches the inboxes of our subscribers once a month. Our subscriber base already exceeds 3,500 people!

"We sent the first issue of the newsletter in early October. Each month, we share not only expert content but also detailed case studies of DB Energy's projects, where technical data is presented. It is a great opportunity to familiarize yourself with real energy-saving investments and see how they compare to other similar projects." says Dorota Jeżewska, Marketing Director at DB Energy.

Stay up to date with zero emissions – subscribe to our newsletter!

We Are Starting a Collaboration with Chemistry and Business

In 2025, we will collaborate with the portal Chemistry and Business, where we plan to publish new expert content related to the chemical industry. This is a great opportunity for us to share more about the energy efficiency opportunities within this sector. The chemical industry is one of the most energy-intensive, yet it holds significant energy potential due to the chemical processes taking place. During these processes, large amounts of heat or steam are often produced. Drawing from our experience, we will create engaging materials for the portal, where we will share more insights.

We have already written about two implementations in the chemical industry on our website:

Case Study – Zero-Emission Strategy in a Battery Manufacturing Facility

Case Study – Zero-Emission Strategy in a Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Facility

Charity Events
Corporate Run 2024

In May, we participated in the Corporate Run – the 12th edition of this event. This year, the run supported 13 young heroes of the Everest Foundation. Some of our team ran remotely, while others completed the race at the Skowroni Park in Wrocław, accompanied by enthusiastic supporters. This year, the event raised PLN 638,120.89 for the treatment and rehabilitation of the Foundation's beneficiaries.

Read more about the Everest Foundation's activities here

Fundraising for the Animal Shelter in Świdnica

During the summer, we organized a collection at our office for the Animal Shelter in Świdnica. The shelter, operated by the Mam Pomysł Foundation, has been in operation since 2017 and currently cares for around 120 dogs and cats. Thanks to the efforts of DB Energy employees, we raised approximately PLN 1,000 for the shelter – we hope that our contribution has helped the furry residents.

Read more about the activities of the Świdnica Shelter here

With this blog post, we close the year 2024. We would like to wish you a peaceful Christmas and lots of good energy for the new year, 2025. See you in January!

The DB Energy Team