Case studies
- Environmental responsibility
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A tale of two energy-efficient chillers
TI has made great strides in reducing its energy consumption with results that benefit customers, the environment and TI’s bottom line. In just five years, TI has reduced the amount of energy it takes to manufacture a chip by 39 percent.
An integrated and global approach to energy conservation made such reductions possible. TI implements an average of 100 energy-savings projects each year, large and small. But in 2010, TI’s single biggest gain in reducing energy use was made by addressing a single operating system at facilities worldwide: chillers.
Chiller plants are one of the most significant energy consumers in TI manufacturing facilities. These systems require a substantial amount of energy to make chilled water, which cools and dehumidifies air in manufacturing, office and data center facilities. In all, chiller plants account for about 20 percent of TI’s total global energy usage.
Sites worldwide took unique, tailored approaches to decreasing chiller energy use, including optimizing efficiency, replacing old components, and decreasing usage — each with substantial energy reduction and cost savings.
Replacing old systems in Miho, Japan
TI’s facility in Miho, Japan, has completed the majority of a multiyear capital project that upgraded and replaced major components of their chiller system. Although this site was able to keep the original systems operating for three decades through conscientious maintenance practices, it became much more cost-effective in recent years to replace an old system with new, more efficient components. Large component replacement projects can span several years because the facility continues to operate 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Through good design and careful planning, the Miho team was able to successfully execute this project with no interruption to the manufacturing process.
There are still a few more phases to complete, but operational efficiency improvements are already being realized. When the whole project is complete, it will deliver an estimated 40 percent reduction in the energy needed to provide chilled water. It’s an achievement in efficiency at just one site that will save TI more than $1.5 million annually.
Optimizing efficiency in North Texas
TI’s largest chiller plant is in Dallas, Texas, where it supports about 5 million square feet of buildings on the 295-acre North Campus. Over the years, TI engineer Steve Smith has installed a number of chiller system improvements to maximize efficiency. Through the addition of detailed performance monitoring capabilities, Smith implemented a new strategy that didn’t require the replacement of any additional components but instead focused on the optimum operation of the entire system.
“Just a few operational adjustments to chiller systems can have a significant impact on total energy use,” he said.
The North Campus Central Plant operators frequently select and adjust various subcomponents of the entire system such as chillers, cooling towers and pumps to address changing production and weather conditions. System reliability and efficiency depend heavily on their knowledge and experience. In addition, experimentation and modeling — aided by the work of co-op students over several summers — has led to the development of an optimized operating strategy for the plant.
With all of the plans and monitoring data in place, Smith set up a simple feedback strategy to pull everything together. He collected actual plant efficiency data for all possible outdoor weather conditions. He then devised a method to turn a large volume of data into a simple bar graph that displays a percentage value of how well the plant is currently operating. This system compares the current operating efficiency against the best previous known efficiency for the current weather conditions. The operators monitor the graph and try to beat the previous best-known efficiency. If they tie, the graph shows 100 percent and is displayed as green. If it’s not at 100 percent, the operators look for issues in the system. And if they exceed the target, the bar rises up above 100 percent and sets a new record.
“It’s a simple feedback mechanism on a complex system, and it works,” Smith explained. “If the chiller plant efficiency score is not at 100 percent, the operators adjust the system components to better optimize the plant. And they constantly compete to see who can set a new efficiency record.”
This feedback loop, combined with the operators’ desire to achieve the best score, resulted in a nearly 5 percent energy savings, translating to roughly $300,000 in 2010 alone.
Focus on the future
According to David Thomas, vice president of TI Facilities, although sizable and effective projects such as optimizing chillers are cutting manufacturing costs and emissions globally, it’s not just the large projects that make a difference. Continuous improvement is only possible through a company culture that inspires innovation.
“We need to ensure that we never miss an opportunity for efficiency on a new project,” Thomas said. “We will continue to share and implement best practices around the world, wisely utilize new technology, and build a culture of efficiency and sustainability.”
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