HVAC and chilled water at Abbott Ireland
Abbott Ireland Diagnostics Division signed up to SEAI's Energy Agreements programme in 2010. A comprehensive strategy was developed to improve the energy efficiency of the site.
Key achievements
This project has resulted in annual energy savings of 5.58 million kWh. This has translated to significant financial savings.
The project has brought about maintenance and operating efficiencies across Abbott Ireland.
Integration of Building and Energy Management System data allows improved key performance indicators to be developed for future initiatives.
The method to control the chiller water from the return temperature has potential to become an industry standard for HVAC cooling.
| Annual energy (kWh) | Annual costs (€) | Annual CO2 (kg) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before project | 16,747,365 | 1,440,583 | 5,866,000 |
| After project | 11,165,958 | 1,115,872 | 4,271,000 |
| Savings | 5,581,407 (33% saving) | 324,711 (22.5% saving) | 1,595,000 (27% saving) |
Background to Abbott Ireland
Abbott Diagnostics is a global leader of in vitro diagnostics, with approximately 70,000 customers in more than 100 countries. It is the second largest diagnostic products manufacturing facility in the world.
Improvements to chilled water and air conditioning systems
One area of focus was a chilled water system, served by a pair of duty/standby air-cooled chillers with a best coefficient of performance (COP) of 3.0. These chillers were supplemented by a Trane RTHD 950 water cooled base load chiller with a Watermiser 1,600kW GRP cooling tower. The COP of the new unit is over 6.0, while the remaining older chiller has been designated as a standby unit. A new Sabroe Heatpac Rotatune 28 heat pump was installed to recycle the waste heat from the water cooled chiller into the low-pressure hot water (LPHW) system.
A second focus was on a free cooling solution for the heat, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems at both plants. Control systems were installed so that their loads vary in response to the building's occupancy and demand. This was achieved by using carbon dioxide sensors in the canteen and passive infrared sensors in the meeting rooms. Smarter scheduling and free cooling control was also implemented.
Finally, the existing Schneider Triple E-rated building management systems (BMS) and Episensor‐eSight Triple E-rated energy management systems (EMS) were expanded to include additional meters. This allowed the project saving to be verified.
Contractually integrated energy performance
The project management service was assessed on its quality and on‐time delivery. All equipment purchases included a performance clause. Additionally, the project management company Agility Knowledge Management Service linked part of its management fee to delivering projected savings.
"The involvement of the energy supply company as a partner enhanced the analysis of data from our energy management system, and leveraged advantages in these projects and ongoing energy management."
Funding and finance
The project, which comprised 16 sub-projects, was managed by Agility Knowledge Management Services Ltd. They are a project management company with experience managing efficiency projects for large scale energy users.
Industrial Utilities Ltd was used as a specialist energy consultancy, and Bord na Mona was brought on as a partner to perform independent verification of the savings achieved using data from the site's energy management system.
Peter DeBie
Environmental Engineer
Abbott Ireland
Diagnostic Division
John Hensey
Agility Knowledge Management Services
www.akms.ie
Donall O'Brien
EM3
www.em3.ie