Energy-efficiency networks for SMEs: Learning from the Swedish experience

Abstract

The potential for energy efficiency improvements in the industry is significant for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), but the implementation of energy-efficiency measures is not always possible owing to various barriers to energy efficiency. Working with energy management personnel inside companies can help to overcome these barriers. However, this is not a common practice among SMEs. Participation in industrial energy-efficiency networks (IEENs) can be a means of introducing customized energy management practices into SMEs. In such a network, industrial companies get support for a period of three to four years from an external network coordinator to determine energy efficiency potential, implement energy-efficiency measures, and monitor energy performance. The method has been used widely in Switzerland and Germany, while in other countries the experience has not proven successful thus far. To show the effects of networking among industrial companies, it is important to evaluate networks quantitatively and qualitatively. This aspect is missing from the field of energy efficiency research, not least with regard to evaluation methods. Thus, it is crucial to evaluate Swedish IEENs and suggest methods for evaluating IEENs. The aim of this study is to review IEENs with particular emphasis on Swedish IEENs. The results show that in Sweden, a common notion of IEENs has not yet been established, and projects with different characteristics and designs fall under the category of IEEN. The lack of a standard approach to running and evaluating IEENs makes it difficult to evaluate Swedish networks quantitatively.

Designing Policies and Programmes for Improved Energy Efficiency in Industrial SMEs

“…Four studies investigated more than one country [36,50,56,62]. The countries covered in the most studies are Italy [6][7][8]39,40,42,54], where enterprises in the Lombardy region have mainly been studied, followed by China [41,47,49,51,58,59] and Sweden [27,43,55,57,60,64].…”

“…The affiliations of the authors in the studied papers are predominantly three groups: Politecnico di Milano from Italy [5][6][7][8]36,39,40,42,54,62], Linköping University from Sweden [27,36,43,[55][56][57]60,62,64] and Utrecht University from The Netherlands [5,15,38,39].…”

“…Paramonova and Thollander [57] conducted interviews and questionnaires to evaluate industrial energy efficiency networks (IEEN) in Sweden targeting SMEs. The lack of general characteristics and designs of Swedish IEEN together with the lack of a standardized approach to evaluate the networks complicates the evaluations.…”

Collaborating for energy efficiency in Swedish shipping industry: interrelating practice and challenges

“…While research on energy efficiency collaboration has increased over the last decade, the number of studies remains low. Much emphasis has been on a specific type of networks in Swiss and German settings; as previous research has indicated organisational differences depending on national context (Paramonova and Thollander 2016), more studies are needed to better understand the concept in other countries. Moreover, most previous studies exploring the topic have focused on meta-level analysis (Jochem and Gruber 2007;Koewener et al 2011;Wohlfarth et al 2017), rather than on in-depth studies investigating day-to-day practices of collaborative initiatives.…”

“…Rather, a more inclusive, peer-based management like in the network seems to have been more successful for the purpose of Sweship Energy. Since previous research has shown that the type of energy efficiency collaborations that exist in Switzerland and Germany seems to have a more top-down approach (Paramonova and Thollander 2016), it would be interesting to delve deeper into this issue, analyzing these potential regional differences further.…”