Achieving Sustainable Energy Reduction in an Industrial Setting

Kit Oung, Senior Energy Consultant, Projective Limited (Standfirst) According to McKinsey and Company*1, European energy demand will grow at 1.2 percent a year to 2020. Yet if companies implemented energy savings, requirements could be held at 2008 levels. So how far has industry gone towards this goal, and will the implementation of ISO50001 make a significant difference? Kit Oung takes a look at what is possible In 2006 the European Commission estimated that Europe wasted 20% of its energy. As a result it implemented higher energy-efficiency standards than many other regions of the world. European companies now recognise the energy savings that higher efficiency delivers, yet they are achieving only a fraction of the sizable commercial opportunities promised by innovation on this front. The reasons are many and varied, but one common thread running through the slow uptake, especially in small to medium sized businesses, is lack of information on how to do this cost effectively and how to do it with little or no disruption to daily business. ISO 50001 will change all this and enable higher energy savings, competitive advantage and an improvement on bottom line for those organisations who adopt it. AD HOC MEASURES ARE NOT SUSTAINABLE To explain further; some firms implement energy efficiency initiatives on an ad hoc basis, others rely on one or two employees orchestrating and facilitating energy savings in the company without embedding energy efficient behaviours. Others chose to add technology without consideration of the overall impact on daily operations and personnel. These ad hoc unstructured efforts do not constitute an energy management system. They often have a roller coaster effect, where costs are deemed to be high, some waste cutting efforts are made, costs go down, and then they rise again because there is no system in place and no monitoring of data. Ad hoc measures are barriers to energy management. Management focus is on production not on energy efficiency. There is a lack of corporate understanding of both the financial and qualitative benefits, and a disconnection between capital and operating budgets with final costs seen as more important than recurring costs. Technical knowledge resides within individuals rather than in the organisation, which leads to a sustainability risk. There is a lack of training on systems energy and poor monitoring of system for overall operational efficiency.

ISO50001 ENERGY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ISO50001 is an internationally recognised and integrated set of processes and tools to develop a holistic energy reduction strategy through the implementation of an energy management system. With ISO50001 comes the dawn of a structured approach to energy management. Although ISO50001 is newly launched, its adoption is likely to grow exponentially in similar fashion to that of ISO9001 and ISO14001 Significant energy efficiency in industry is achieved through changes in how energy is managed in an industrial facility, rather than through installation of new technologies. And surprisingly, research shows that up to 25% of energy consumption can be saved with relatively little or no cost and without significant changes in lifestyle and business practices * 2 Actively managing energy requires an organizational change in culture. Top management needs to be engaged in the management of energy on an ongoing basis. At its core, energy management requires a group of people to change their behaviour and sustain the change. By adopting ISO50001, senior management commit to the programme, initial savings are sustained, housekeeping is implemented first for quick wins, and long term savings are put in place with regular monitoring processes. ISO 50001 allows the organisation to translate the strategy into daily operational actions, then monitor and improve on the organisations effectiveness. Energy Management Systems improve bottom line. They are based on measurement and provide continuity. Savings during the first 2 years are often 10-20%. PLAN DO CHECK ACT ISO50001 strengthens management focus on energy and creates awareness. It encourages commitment across the organisation, introduces and sustains a systematic approach to efficiency and requires management commitment of resources. Based on the concept of Plan Do Check Act, ISO50001 will encourage energy savings in both the short and the long term. All indications are that ISO50001 will have an even greater impact on trade than ISO9001. Companies will demand participation by their suppliers. Early adopters of the standard will find themselves with a competitive advantage. MANY UK COMPANIES HAVE ALREADY IMPLEMENTED ENERGY MANAGEMENT Of course the goal of reduced energy costs is already a reality for many UK companies. Energy management is recognised as an important - not just for

compliance purposes or for reasons of corporate social responsibility, but also because it delivers real savings. Industrial process and energy consultants at Projective have been working in the field for 7 years and counts amongst its clients some of the blue chip industrial organisations. The two case studies below illustrate how energy management principles, incorporating the Plan Do Check Act principles contained in IS50001, resulted in tangible benefits and reduced costs for a large pharmaceutical company and for one of the UKs water companies. Case Study 1 ENERGY MANAGEMENT IN CHILLED WATER USAGE LEADS TO REAL SAVINGS A leading global pharmaceutical and healthcare company engaged Energy Consultants Projective to look at ways to improve energy efficiency. The company has 11 manufacturing sites around the UK. In terms of energy use, the first site surveyed is the third largest of the companys UK manufacturing facilities. It incorporates specialist production units dedicated to fermentation, extraction, chemical synthesis, granulation, blending, tabletting, film-coating, powder filling and packaging. The site uses chilled water for a number of processes and air handling units and the challenge was to improve efficiency and leverage cost savings. Plan Chilled water onsite is fed by a common central chilled water system comprising of four chillers with a capacity in total of 11.8MWt. An assessment of the system showed a large amount of unnecessary chilled water flow around the site which caused the chillers to run inefficiently. On the low pressure side, over 50 items of chilled water flow savings were identified, which although individually small, cumulatively made real improvements in system efficiency. The excess chilled water on site was predominantly due to water bypassing through three-way control valves. As the system had already been converted to a variable flow system, these valves were no longer required. Do Projective recommended replacement of the valves. On the low pressure distribution side, the existing fixed speed booster pump set was changed to variable speed controlled based on the differential pressure of the end line chilled water users. By combining the reduction in flow with the improved control of the chillers, it has been possible to turn off one chiller.

Check Ongoing system monitoring has shown that the measures taken have not only reduced pumping costs but have also improved overall efficiency of the chiller system and heralded in electrical savings of over 1000,000 per annum. Act Because a system of ongoing monitoring is now in place, any drops in efficiency can be readily identified and adjusted to ensure continuous energy management. (Call outs) Net annual savings of over 100, 000 per annum electricity Carbon dioxide savings of 650 tonnes per year Short payback time < 2 years

Case Study 2 WATER COMPANY CALCULATES POTENTIAL COST SAVINGS OF 20k. Projective surveyed a water treatment site comprising of three onsite boreholes (Nos. 1, 2, 3) and two boreholes located remotely (Nos. 4, 5). Water quality onsite is poor although cost of abstraction is significantly cheaper due to shallow pumped water levels and proximity to the combined discharge location. The two remote boreholes (Nos. 4, 5) are first and second duty at all times to maintain an acceptable final blended water quality. Demand is such that these two boreholes predominantly operate together at all times. The cost of abstraction is high at No. 4 due to deeper pumped water levels and at No. 5 due to the pump being throttled to maintain the abstraction licence. Plan Projective sent in a team of process and industrial energy consultants to study the problem. They identified several energy saving opportunities to reduce the cost of total abstraction and maintain water quality. Following discussions with Operations and the Groundwater Team, the required percentage split between on-site and remote boreholes was defined. This investigation also allowed the pump at borehole No. 5 to be unthrottled slightly to achieve a higher flow rate. This alone saved 6,500 per annum.

A variable flow control system was investigated, which would require some capital investment to achieve long term gain: Do VSD was proposed on the pump at borehole No.5 to remove the throttle completely, expected to save a minimum of 6,000 per annum. A step test was recommended for borehole No. 4 to define the pumped water levels against flow rate. Drawdown is expected to reduce significantly at reduced flows and so VSD is desirable, controlling to the level in the reservoir. Check Following VSD installation on both remote boreholes, a minimum speed for each can then be defined to allow an acceptable final water quality to be achieved with an on-site borehole operating. An on-site borehole would therefore operate whenever demand is present together with the two remote boreholes, initially at minimum speed. As the level in the reservoir begins to drop, the speed of the remote boreholes will increase. This allows the cheaper sources of water to be equal first priority, meaning the cost of abstraction will be greatly reduced. Total savings from these simple energy efficient opportunities is calculated at 20K. Continued energy efficiency is part of the energy management plan going forward, and to this end, new operating procedures will be introduced to monitor and analyse water quality from all boreholes. Act If water quality fluctuates, the new VSD pumps afford the opportunity of acting quickly to adjust flow. Install VSD on the pump at borehole No. 5 to allow the removal of the throttle completely Install VSD on the pump at borehole No. 4. This will allow flow control of both remote boreholes. Determine the flow split required between on-site and remote boreholes needed to achieve a suitable final water quality and prioritise the cheaper sources.

Kit Oung is Senior Energy Consultant leading the Projective Series of Workshops on Implementing ISO50001. For further information kit.oung@projectiveltd.co.uk

Capturing the European energy productivity opportunity, September 2008, McKinsey Global Institute 2 Per-Anders Enkvist, Tomas Naucler, and Jens Riese, 2008. What Countries Can Do About Cutting Carbon Emissions? McKinsey Quarterly, No.2.