The majority of the energy used is electricity, for lighting, plants operation and building temperature control.
Hitachi Rail STS uses mainly natural gas and district heating to heat the workplaces. In order to reduce electricity consumption, the company carries out constant works on its real estate assets, to increase their eco-efficiency.
Energy-saving lighting and heating/cooling technologies are used as much as possible, such as:
LED lighting systems;
building envelopes and thermal insulation for windows and doors;
direct-expansion heating/cooling systems (heat pumps);
presence detectors or clocks/timers to control the on and off switching of the systems;
improvement in the data centre’s energy efficiency;
affixing of signs to remind personnel about energy saving projects, such as turning off lights, laptop computers and devices that consume energy;
reduction in the number of vehicles used by the company.
COMPANY PERFORMANCE
In the year ended 31.03.19, total energy consumption amounted to 137,294 GJ.
TOTAL ENERGY CONSUMPTIONS (GJ)
-2.9%
Total energy consumption
compared to the previous year
On average, about 78% of total energy consumption is due to the 29 office sites and 22% to the 3 production sites. Consumption during the last two-year period dropped at both the office sites (-2.2%) and the production sites (-5.3%).
TOTAL ENERGY CONSUMPTIONS PER CARRIER (GJ)
This reduction was due to the lower consumption of electricity, 4,113 GJ (-4.8%); district heating, 613 GJ (-10.1%); and petrol and LPG, 420 (-4.0%). On the contrary, consumption of natural gas went up for a value of 1,066 GJ (+3.5%)
ENERGY INTENSITY total energy consumption per hour worked (GJ/no. hours)
RENEWABLE ENERGIES
Hitachi Rail STS requested the cancellation of its GO certificates (Guarantee of Origin), an electronic certification attesting the renewable origin of the electricity sources used, for the Italian sites and offices. By acquiring and subsequently cancelling the certificates (the latter entails the withdrawal of the certificate from the market), Hitachi Rail STS demonstrates its commitment to environmental sustainability through its willingness to pay the positive difference with the price of electricity from conventional sources.
The Solna site also uses an electricity supplier that has Bra Miljøval certification. The electricity is marked eco-compatible and is produced following very stringent environmental criteria, including the fact that the hydroelectric sites must not dry up the water reserves and that the biofuel comes from controlled and authorised deforestation
25.4%
electricity from renewable sources
INNOVATIONS AND TECHNOLOGIES FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Hitachi Rail STS’s unwavering commitment to providing its customers and end users (passengers and freight) with the best products and system solutions, the use of the best design methodologies and procedures and the best existing construction methods and processes contributes to increasing safety and reducing direct and indirect impacts on the environment.
Hitachi Rail STS’s research into energy efficiency concentrates on the following macro-areas:
Assistance with the design of turnkey systems, through holistic hardware-in-the-loop simulators to provide a transport system that uses energy efficiently.
Operation – rail & driverless, focused on searching for the optimum speed profile, considering scheduling and driving conduct.
Technologies for energy savings, for ground recovery systems, geothermal heat pumps, simulators for the optimal size of supercapacitor accumulation systems.
The Company developed these areas as part of the MERLIN (Management of Energy in Railway Systems), OSIRIS (Optimal Strategy to Innovate and Reduce energy consumption in urban rail Systems) and SFERE (Sistemi FERroviari: ecosostenibilità e Risparmio Energetico) research projects.
Two important innovations introduced by Hitachi Rail STS in signalling systems for train control relate to the use of public telecommunications networks and GPS – Global Positioning Satellite – technology. The use of these new control systems will replace track equipment, which requires greater energy consumption. These systems will especially be used on low traffic lines in Europe, which make up about 50% of the total network length.
