SANOFI relies on ALPI’s CANECO BT and CANECO HT to upgrade its electrical installations in a relevant and cost-effective way.
Operation and maintenance are an integral part of building life – whether new or old. That’s why SANOFI, France’s leading healthcare company, has a team of professionals at many of its sites, entirely dedicated to upgrading its electrical infrastructures. The aim: to guarantee the smooth running of activities carried out in each building. To achieve this, Ange Galera, in charge of maintenance and operation of all technical infrastructures, energy and utilities at the SANOFI R&D site, has equipped himself with CANECO BT and CANECO HT software. An invaluable aid for making the right technical decisions, staying compliant and optimizing the cost of each maintenance operation. He explains his choice.
Located at SANOFI’s Montpellier site, Ange Galera, as a trained engineer, joined the pharmaceutical giant as Electrical Service Manager in 2000. His field of action? Electrical engineering maintenance and operation. At the beginning of 2022, he takes up the post of Maintenance and Operations Manager for all technical infrastructures, energy and utilities. A major assignment!
“The SANOFI Montpellier site is a Research & Development (R&D) center. It covers an area of 30 hectares, including about fifteen buildings with a wide variety of activities (laboratories, distribution, packaging, etc.). In practice, a site of this size functions like a city with its own networks: each building is autonomous, with its own electrical distribution substation, its own low-voltage switchboard, its own distribution… With my team of 15 people and around thirty subcontractors, we work on the technical infrastructures as well as on the networks that deliver all the energy required for the smooth running of the installations. Ultimately, “my customers” are the scientists who work in each building.”
In 2018, Ange Galera decided to equip himself with the CANECO BT and CANECO HT software. The reason? All the electrical companies working on SANOFI’s Montpellier site use these software packages to dimension their installations.
“For more than a decade, we’ve seen the emergence of numerous buildings on the site. Quite large production facilities. Almost all (if not all) of these new buildings were dimensioned with ALPI’s CANECO BT/HT. In fact, it was an obvious choice to use these solutions, to be able to create a database from all the calculation notes we had at our disposal for each building delivery, to guarantee reliable follow-up, and also to keep them alive afterwards”.
Because, technically speaking, even when buildings are recent, upgrades are necessary, as SANOFI’s Maintenance and Operations Manager explains.
“We regularly commission installers to carry out work. They always ask us for the calculation notes from the construction. This enables them to upgrade existing systems based on complete, reliable information. It saves time and money for them and for us! Another significant advantage that reinforced my decision to acquire CANECO BT and CANECO HT is that the calculation notes produced are recognized by the control offices. In other words, the results are indisputable,” emphasizes Ange Galera.
Have you taken the ALPI software training course?
“Yes, and not just one. I took several (two on CANECO BT and one on CANECO HT), because I found them very, very good! The trainers are qualified and have extensive experience of the profession of electrician and CANECO software. I really recommend these training courses, because you’re dealing with people who don’t just explain how the software works. They bring you real expertise – including on complex dimensioning.”
Did you know about this?
ALPI’s CANECO training courses are CACIEC-certified. We deliver to users who follow CANECO training courses a certificate of proficiency regarding the use of our software. This is a diploma recognized by the French government, as well as by inspection offices and even recruiting companies,” explains Nicolas Planche, ALPI’s Regional Sales Manager for the South-West and Île-de-France areas. To date, we are the only software publisher to offer a certificate for the use of an electrical solution.
In addition to the spreadsheet, the SANOFI maintenance and operations manager was impressed by several other features. “The multi-manufacturer library and the pre-saved folios in the software are, like all the functions present in CANECO BT / CANECO HT, more than up to my needs. For example, what’s interesting is that I don’t just get a sheet with a calculation result, the software provides me with a file with diagrams, bills of materials, etc. Another big plus for me is the curve tool with its various selectivities, which enables me to optimize my solutions in terms of cost and quantity, while remaining compliant.” As the operator of buildings, some of which are more than 25 or even 30 years old, Ange Galera quickly came to the same conclusion as the installers he works with on a regular basis: “CANECO BT enables us to lock in calculations and then carry out others, by selecting from the library the equipment for the year in which the network was installed. It’s very convenient and practical, because sometimes there are compatibility problems between equipment already installed and those you wish to add to or replace. Thanks to the multi-manufacturer and multi-year library, I can refine my selection very quickly, while at the same time ensuring that my calculation notes and installations evolve correctly.” This observation is totally in line with the installers he works with. “They too appreciate finding efficient, compatible solutions in just a few clicks!”
“With CANECO BT and CANECO HT, you can combine compliance and economic logic with relevance. A valuable decision-making aid!”
Downgrading a range, dropping a cable cross-section, changing an installation method… Everything has its importance when it comes to keeping within your budget. “Having a tool that lets you think about it during the sizing phase, that recalculates the installation accordingly and gives you all the information on what you’ve configured/selected, is a real guarantee of technical and economic optimization! So you can make the right decisions. On several occasions, this has enabled me to make savings in terms of cables and even circuit breakers, without compromising the safety requirements imposed on me by SANOFI’s sector of activity,” concludes Ange Galera.
• 30 hectares, more than 15 buildings & over 1000 employees;
• 2 incoming 20kV power supplies & 2 HT loops, 15 HTA/BT substations & 15 TGBTs with 99% compliance to IS 333;
• 1 backup power plant, 1MW cogeneration & 4MW solar energy production;
• Approximately 100 to 300 KM of cables managed on-site.
