How Petit Bateau reduced its energy consumption by 23% at its industrial site
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Written by Qualisteo General Management
The Saint-Joseph factory is Petit Bateau’s historic site. Each year, it consumes 11 gigawatt-hours of gas and 3 gigawatt-hours of electricity, reflecting the intensity of the industrial processes carried out there.
Post-COVID cost explosion
After COVID, Petit Bateau experienced, like many industrial companies, a sharp increase in energy costs. The teams then decided to undertake a serious review of their energy uses, both in terms of processes and buildings. It was in this context that Petit Bateau turned to Qualisteo.
Qualisteo was already familiar with the site’s electrical infrastructure, which made it easier to deploy comprehensive instrumentation and install sub-meters across all installations.
Making consumption visible in order to take action
Once consumption was made visible by area and by use, the first actions followed fairly quickly.
In the administrative building, equipment that continued running over the weekend was identified. Shutdown checklists were put in place so that teams knew exactly what needed to be switched off at the end of the week.
Real-time monitoring also made it possible to detect anomalies that would otherwise have gone unnoticed for days.
One Monday morning, the data showed excessive consumption throughout the weekend. By tracing the cause, the teams discovered that a valve had been left open by mistake by an operator, due to the lack of a visible label. The same logic applies to water monitoring using dedicated sub-meters: as soon as a valve remains abnormally open, an alert makes it possible to intervene and correct the issue quickly.
€435,000 in annual savings validated by the IPMVP protocol
Over the 2023-2025 period, taking 2021 as the reference year, i.e. before the project launch and site instrumentation, the reduction in overall consumption reached 23%, combining gas and electricity. These results were measured and validated according to the IPMVP protocol, the international reference for energy performance measurement and verification.
In concrete terms, this represents an average of €435,000 in annual savings on the site’s energy bill.
This industrial energy efficiency approach shows that data visibility, combined with day-to-day changes in practices, can deliver significant and lasting results without necessarily relying on heavy investments.
