UPM-Kymmene Corporation is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of printing paper. Energy plays an important role in production. As part of its corporate strategy, the company seeks a high level of self-sufficiency in energy production. In addition to using and generating power and steam, UPM is trading electricity with external partners on the local markets. Knowledge of expected energy demand and optimizing energy resources create significant savings.
To achieve this goal, the company has invested considerably in energy efficiency, availability and the predictability of energy supply & demand. The key tool in this area is the corporate wide energy management system consisting of 17 mill level systems - 10 in Central Europe and 7 in Finland – and two control centers. The system has been implemented and extended in several phases over more than 20 years.
The mill level systems collect real-time data from the process, calculate and report electricity, steam, water and natural gas balances and predict energy consumption considering the firm’s own generation capacity given the paper mill production plans. Energy balance data and consumption schedules are consolidated in control centers.
These control centers trade electricity and natural gas with external parties, and distribute the same commodities within the corporation at internal rates. Trading is based on the balance between predicted consumption schedules, the firm’s own generation, and existing sales and purchase contracts.
Energy Manager tools are applied when selecting the optimal balancing resources during the planning phase and predicting and monitoring the balance in real time.
The system also performs extensive reporting functions both at mill and corporate level, including greenhouse and flue gas emission reporting in accordance with the law and regulations.