- Over the last five years, the Company has invested €121 million its Andalusian centers, in projects aimed at making its plants more energy efficient.
- By increasing efficiency, the company can produce more with less energy, using fewer natural resources and with less of an environmental impact due to lower emissions.
Cepsa's annual investment plans in its industrial centers in the region of Andalusia include a series of projects aimed at optimizing machinery operations, contributing to making the facilities as a whole increasingly efficient, requiring less energy to carry out their activities and, consequently, lower gas emissions. This is on top of the scheduled shutdowns for technological improvements and process maintenance.
Over the last five years, a total of €121 million was invested in all these activities in Palos de la Frontera and San Roque.
One way to make an industrial plant more efficient is to deploy new technologies that can reduce energy consumption. There are also other ways, such as changing operating conditions of the processes so that they require less energy, or very exhaustive programming of machinery maintenance work, aimed at restoring the original degree of efficiency before deteriorating due to use.
Cepsa is working to improve the energy efficiency of its facilities, both in Palos de la Frontera and San Roque, applying this concept to its investment plans and new projects, as well as to day-to-day machinery maintenance and upkeep operations and tasks. “Energy efficiency has always been high on our agenda; although we have gone from concrete actions to having an integral project with direct involvement in the entire operation of the production centers, both in the refineries and in the chemical plants", says Juan Carlos Galván, Head of Corporate Environmental Protection at the Company.
Sustainability
Being more efficient in energy consumption greatly reduces the environmental impact of processes since lower energy consumption automatically implies lower emissions both of greenhouse gases and other gases which have an impact on air quality (SO2 and NOx and PM particles). It also has a very positive direct impact on operational cost savings, as approximately 70 percent of all costs are directly related to energy consumption.
Energy use also implies a consumption of energy resources that would be reduced in proportion to the degree of efficiency achieved, making overall production more sustainable. Energy efficiency thus has a very significant effect on competitiveness and on making activity more sustainable.
Two of the most important energy efficiency projects carried out by Cepsa in the last five years have been the energy integration of processes and optimization in the use of steam and electricity.
Energy Management System
In 2014, Cepsa approved the implementation of an Energy Management System compliant with ISO 50001, an international standard aimed at providing a Management system to promote energy efficiency within organizations, which guarantees compliance with energy legislation and increases the use of available energy. Cepsa's three refineries, in Palos de la Frontera, San Roque and the Canary Islands, as well as the Palos chemical plant, have already received this certification, after passing the necessary AENOR audits.
Since 1990, Cepsa has brought down the intensity of its CO2 emissions at its refineries by nearly 50 percent.
Transparency
All the annual work that Cepsa carries out in its centers in this area is included in the Environmental Statement for its refineries and chemical plants. These Statements provide an in-depth rigorous description of these centers and are presented to the public administration and to society as a whole through the media.
The environmental statements of Cepsa's Andalusian centers are EMAS certified. A voluntary environmental management system, in accordance with the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 1221/2009, which ensures that the organizations registered in it comply with all applicable environmental regulations and constantly improve their performance in this area.