- BERLIN, November 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Three German companies and one from India honored for energy efficiency projects The Deutsche Energie-Agentur (dena) - the German Energy Agency - has announced the winners of the Energy Efficiency Award 2015. Lidl Dienstleistung GmbH & Co. KG has won first prize for the development of an energy efficient branch design and its implementation at 217 locations. Bauer Unternehmensgruppe GmbH & Co. KG has received second prize for the systematic reduction of electricity and heat consumption through energy management within the company. Third prize has been awarded to infrastructure facilities operator InfraLeuna GmbH for a cross-company, optimised intermediate pressure steam system. In addition, a forming technology company based in India, Bharat Forge Ltd., has received an award in recognition of its needs-based and optimised control of its refrigeration processes. "The winners of the Energy Efficiency Award show that investments in energy efficiency pay off," said Andreas Kuhlmann, chief executive of Deutsche Energie-Agentur, during the award ceremony at the 6th dena Energy Efficiency Congress in Berlin. "Returns of over 20 per cent are testament to this." The international award is supported by Covestro AG, Danfoss GmbH and DZ BANK AG as premium partners. The Initiative EnergieEffizienz (Energy Efficiency Campaign) is organised by dena and funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) on the basis of a decision of the German parliament. Already in its ninth year, the international Energy Efficiency Award 2015 is under the patronage of Sigmar Gabriel, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy. The awards are given out as part of dena's Initiative EnergieEffizienz for outstanding energy efficiency projects in industry and commerce. The focus is placed on especially cost-effective energy efficiency measures and the ability to transfer them to other companies. The number of applicants also demonstrates the international relevance of energy efficiency solutions: to date, 619 companies have applied for this award - 141 of these from countries other than Germany. For further information, please visit http://www.EnergyEfficiencyAward.de/en Press contact: Deutsche Energie-Agentur GmbH (dena), Tom Raulien, Chausseestraße 128a, 10115 Berlin Tel: +49(0)30-72-61-65-652, Fax: +49(0)30-72-61-65-699, E-mail: raulien@dena.de, Internet: http://www.stromeffizienz.de