A completely renovated show reaffirms itself as an international meeting point and claims energy efficiency as a business opportunity for the electrical and electronics industry
A total of 40.027 professionals have participated in the sixteenth edition of the International Exhibition of Solutions for the Electrical and Electronic Industry, MATELEC 2012, which brought together, from October 23 to 26, at the Madrid Fair, the offer of 530 companies. The fair, organized by IFEMA, registered the visit of 3.579 students in their last year of the corresponding discipline of Vocational Training.
As a result of the foreign promotion campaign, MATELEC has had a significant influx of foreign professional visitors -close to 2.000-, coming from 81 countries, highlighting those from Europe (preferably from Portugal, France, Italy and Germany, in this order ); from Latin America (Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, Panama and Brazil), and from North Africa (especially from Morocco and Tunisia). These are precisely some of the most interesting markets for the sector and in which MATELEC turned its attention during its promotional campaign, aimed at inviting foreign buyers from those geographical areas of greatest interest.
Addressing other markets is an unbeatable opportunity for those companies with sufficient size for it. As has been made clear in this edition of the fair, emerging and/or developing countries and geographical areas, such as China, India, Ibero-America, the Maghreb and the Middle East, offer many possibilities for commercial exchanges that, in addition, will be sustained in time.
The President of the MATELEC Organizing Committee, Enrique Valer, wanted to highlight the success of the event's commitment to energy efficiency, "which implies recognition that it is one of the most powerful business opportunities to revitalize the sector". Valer also thanked the companies for being present at MATELEC 2012, providing solutions to face the current economic environment”. For his part, the Director of the show, Raúl Calleja, highlighted the representativeness of the call, which included a new sectorization, including the new segment of LIGHTEC, Lighting and Lighting Solutions. The presentation of the latest technological advances and the extensive program of professional conferences, with the participation of companies and their associations, have led to the materialization of MATELEC's main objective: to set up a first-rate space for commercial exchange, in which efficiency, energy saving and sustainability have been the true protagonists of a call aimed at supporting the interests of the industry.
Need to promote savings through energy efficiency
The celebration of the Energy Efficiency Week, with its routes through the most efficient Madrid, and meetings such as the conferences organized by the Instituto Tecnológico Hotelero, ITH; the General Directorate of Industry of the Community of Madrid; the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, FEMP; the National Association of Rehabilitation and Reform Companies, ANERR; the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Madrid; The National Federation of Entrepreneurs of Electrical Installations and Telecommunications of Spain, FENIE, and the Spanish Association of Lighting Manufacturers, ANFALUM, among others, have made clear both the possibilities and the interest for professionals in the sector, due to the opportunities offered in these days energy efficiency. The parallel program of MATELEC technical conferences has had more than 150 events, aimed at a wide group of professionals, including property managers, maintenance managers, hotels, retailers... that is, the end users of electrical installations, precisely one of the great objectives of this edition. At the 2012st Smart Grids Congress, organized by the Tecma Red Group, the need to promote the development of smart electricity grids was discussed, allowing the creation of new services and markets, through an orientation towards innovation, as well as the appearance of new niches such as the electric vehicle, which represents opportunities to facilitate the deployment of smart grids, among other aspects, organized by the Tecma Red Group within the framework of MATELEC 9. Also from the point of view of business opportunities, it is worth highlighting the possibilities offered by the market for the integration of services and functionalities in homes that, grouped under the concept of Digital Home, affect both telecommunications integrators and companies and professionals in the home automation and building automation sector, highlighted , among others, in forums such as the XNUMXth Congress of Telecommunications Installation and Integration Companies, of FENITEL-AMIITEL, and in the IV Congress of the KNX Association.
For its part, FENIE, the employers' association of Spanish electrical installation and telecommunications companies, has actively participated in the MATELEC program of professional meetings, with the new edition of eDOCEO —on this occasion under the title "Rehabilitation for Efficiency" and particularly aimed at the hotel sector— and the National Contest for Young Electricians, among other initiatives.
Technology, protagonist of the MATELEC Awards
MATELEC was the scene of different awards. The 9st Awards for Innovation and Energy Efficiency went to the programmable chrono-thermostat with communications and local and remote control through the 'App' for Orus GSM Smartphones (Small Equipment and Domestic Switchgear Category), from Orbis Tecnologia; ACTI2 communication system, from Schneider Electric (Industrial Switchgear); RS Pro LED S94 lighting system, from SAET-600 (Lighting and Lighting Department); monitoring and control center for intelligent energy management Sunny Home Manager, from SMA Ibérica Tecnología Solar (Smart Home Category); the EMIC-5 EMIC System battery, from Saft Batteries (in Smart Buildings), and the Wireless Harmony XB20R pushbutton, from Schneider Electric (Automation and Industrial Control). Likewise, the distinction as “Ciudadano XNUMX” was awarded to Cristina Ferrer, from the Elite Leonesa Montage company.
On the other hand, during the conference on work-life balance policies, the General Director of Grupo Peisa, Amparo Almiñana (Valencia) was presented with the distinction as the Best Entrepreneur of the Year in the electrical and electronic sector.
Business opportunities in the face of the crisis
In general, the companies, associations and organizations participating in MATELEC 2012 have devoted themselves to proposing and offering new business opportunities for professionals. Thus, due to its unstoppable projection, all the activities associated with and/or aimed at achieving improvements in the energy efficiency of the systems are destined to gain increasing strength in the sector. Proof of this is the proliferation of ESCOs (Energy Services Companies), basically engineering companies that have focused their activity on the study and undertaking of measures to optimize energy performance in numerous fields of activity. In this sense, it is worth highlighting the conference organized by ANESE, the Association of Energy Service Companies, on the business model of energy service companies. Smart cities and their associated possibilities (smart meters, improvement of transport and distribution networks, electric vehicles and charging points...) are gaining more and more visible weight. Despite facing a new environment with less public aid, companies active in the renewable energy sector and associated systems also have a promising future ahead of them. Although it is not new and has been claimed from different forums for years, the rehabilitation of older facilities is, in addition to a safety factor for people and property, a safe bet in the short and medium term. There are also opportunities to improve industrial productivity in related sectors, as the EPLAN company has demonstrated through the numerous meetings held at its stand. The manufacturers themselves that have exhibited their offer at MATELEC have made a firm commitment to segments associated with energy efficiency, and propose products and solutions in which low consumption is a fundamental premise.
