– Poland is an attractive market for Dalkia because, we can implement both of our energy solutions: grid optimisation and energy efficiency, says Jerome Ladriere, Dalkia’s Executive Vice President – International & Business Development, in his interview with BiznesAlert.pl.
BiznesAlert.pl: What projects is Dalkia working on in Poland?
Jerome Ladriere: Our portfolio includes projects such as the recovery of heat from industrial processes and the production of energy in cogeneration and trigeneration. We help our local partners reduce their energy costs, eliminate low emission and, most importantly, increase the quality of life for the residents.
We focus our efforts on improving energy efficiency by adding greener energy sources to the energy mix and on optimising electricity grids. In Katowice, our subsidiary ZEC supplies heat to households and public buildings using methane sourced from coal mines. The use of methane in energy production increases the safety of miners in workings and reduces methane emissions to the atmosphere thereby increasing the quality of life of the region’s residents. Another Dalkia’s subsidiary, Matex Controls, offers IT solutions that increase energy efficiency of buildings. Matex Controls has created an innovative Virtual Energy Management System, or VEMS, which monitors and optimises energy consumption in buildings. The company’s solutions allow its clients to achieve an average of 15-25% reduction in energy consumption.
What does Dalkia make of the smog problem in Poland? Do you have any ideas how to deal with it?
We help our clients increase energy efficiency in the most energy-intensive sectors of the economy, such as chemicals, steel, quarrying and mining, paper, food and agriculture or construction. We are committed to achieving results that will help our clients reduce energy consumption, limit CO2 emissions, and decrease energy costs.
For Juliusz Residential Complex in Sosnowiec, we designed and built a grid connection to the central heating network, we built combined heat distribution centres, and we designed and built internal installations for central heating and hot utility water as well as the installation for the integrated automatic heat control system. It is a predictive system which, using weather forecast data, takes into account a building’s heat inertia and prevents it from overheating or overcooling, thereby optimising energy consumption. This way, we are able to reduce CO2 emissions in Sosnowiec by 8000 tonnes and particulates emissions by 81 tonnes annually.
We help our Polish clients meet the challenges of energy transition. For instance, we have signed an agreement with Żywiec to develop integrated projects in order to increase energy efficiency, eliminate low emissions, and boost energy self-sufficiency of the city. We have also signed a partnership agreement with Gdynia where we help increase energy efficiency by monitoring energy consumption in buildings. The Polish market is really promising and I believe we have good solutions for the Polish authorities as well as the Polish industry.
What are Dalkia’s future expansion plans?
We aim to expand in selected areas, including primarily energy efficiency, heating and heat recovery. We want to continue doing business in our existing markets, that is the US, the UK, Ireland, Russia, Belgium, Canada, France and Poland, of course. Poland is a very attractive market for Dalkia for several reasons. First and foremost, for a number of years Polish economy has been growing at a significant pace, one of the highest in Europe. And we believe that we can provide our Polish clients with what they need, which is more energy-efficient solutions.
Poland is one of key markets for Dalkia’s expansion. We will focus our efforts on heating segments, energy efficiency and energy solutions for buildings and industry. Dalkia is set to triple its turnover in Poland in a short period of time. The strategy for 2018-2022 envisages organic growth through taking on new public and commercial projects. Further growth will be based on the group’s local resources as well as its global expertise.
Interview conducted by Michał Perzyński