1.Award Category: Excellence in Energy Management

This recognises companies that have demonstrated their commitment to excellence in energy management.

Molex Singapore Pte Ltd

Molex has strong top leadership commitment to improve energy efficiency (EE), a clearly defined vision and energy policy, and a cross-functional energy management team consisting of various process owners and subject matter experts. The team drives all of Molex’s energy saving initiatives with the goal of reducing its energy intensity, i.e. energy use per $ manufacturing output, by 15% from 2013 to 2018. In addition to the traditional method of focusing on the building and facilities for EE issues, the team raises awareness and encourages all employees to address EE issues in their daily activities. The responsibility of managing the energy consumption of each process is also allocated to the process owners.

By actively engaging the process owners and conducting an energy audit, with NEA co-funding half of the energy audit fees, the team was able to identify and subsequently complete a total of 8 key EE improvement projects, yielding a total energy savings of 7.7GWh per year, or annual energy cost savings of $1.29 mil. Since embarking on its EE journey, Molex’s successful implementation of its energy management system and energy improvement measures has helped it reduce its energy consumption by about 48% and improve its energy intensity by 41%, from 2012 levels.

Singapore Management University (SMU)

SMU started its energy efficiency programmes in 2007 and implemented an ISO 50001 certified energy management system in 2013. With strong senior management support, SMU has established a dedicated team, trained in the various aspects of energy efficiency, to drive the Campus’s energy management system effectively. SMU currently has 2 Singapore Certified Energy Managers (SCEMs) and 2 certified data centre professionals/specialists. In addition, SMU’s data center also meets the SS564 Green Data Centre standards.

More than 200 power meters are installed in SMU. These meters monitor energy consumption in each building and the important energy consuming systems. Monthly energy data are monitored, and the results of energy efficiency improvement measures are assessed and discussed.

SMU has also made significant efforts to overcome challenges in building an energy efficiency culture in SMU, and is continuously looking for new ways to improve energy efficiency in both their building facilities and in the data centers. SMU had reduced its total energy use from 25 GWh in 2006 to 16.8 GWh in 2015, achieving a 33% reduction in energy consumption. SMU has also improved its energy intensity in terms of energy use per student by 65% from 2006 to 2015.

German Centre for Industry & Trade Pte Ltd

German Centre Singapore has a dedicated energy management team led by the head of building management and comprising members from different departments. The team has strong senior management support to develop the technical skills and competencies needed to effectively manage energy usage within the organization.

German Centre Singapore’s goal is not only to implement EE measures for their own building’s services, but also to allow its tenants to benefit from the use energy-efficient features. For example, German Centre Singapore absorbed the cost of installing new LED tubes for every tenanted office in the building that needed to be retrofitted with energy-efficient lighting, even though it would not directly enjoy the energy savings achieved.

This resulted in energy savings for the tenants and reduced the tenant’s energy bills. German Centre Singapore has carried out EE measures from 2012 to 2015, achieving an annual energy savings of about 711 MWh, or about $177,692 of cost savings per year. From 2013 to 2015, German Centre Singapore had reduced both its energy intensity and energy consumption by 38%.

2.Award Category: Best Practices

This recognises corporate teams that have implemented energy efficiency projects which have led to improvements in the energy performance of their facilities.

ExxonMobil Asia Pacific

Project Title: Recovery of overhead waste heat at the ExxonMobil Singapore Refinery

In a crude distillation unit, heat exchangers are used to recover overhead product heat to preheat crude feed before the latter enters the distillation column.

The project saw the replacement of three existing shell and tube (S&T) heat exchangers with two welded plate heat exchangers (WPHEs). This energy efficiency opportunity was identified through pinch analysis studies, which were conducted as part of regular energy performance assessment reviews. The results of the studies highlighted that there was opportunity to recover more heat which would otherwise be lost to the atmosphere.

The WPHEs, which have compact design with large surface areas, allowed an additional 3 MW of waste heat to be recovered from the distillation column to preheat the crude feed. This resulted in an increase in furnace inlet temperature, which reduced the amount of fuel required to operate the furnace. The improvement in energy performance of the heat exchangers resulted in 21 GWh (or 8.7%) of annual fuel savings for the furnace in the crude distillation unit.

Lucite International Singapore

Project Title: Heat Recovery project phase II alpha MMA Plant

The heat recovery phase II project allowed for recovery of significant energy previously consumed in one part of the alpha MMA process. This energy recovery was achieved by implementation of direct mechanical vapour compression – one of the process streams was compressed and this allowed its condensation characteristics to be altered such that the energy contained within that stream could be used to provide heat elsewhere in the process.

This was the first time such a heat recovery technology had been used in the alpha MMA process and its successful commissioning provided a significant improvement in the energy efficiency of this process. Technology design for the project was done in collaboration with Lucite’s Strategic Projects Group in Wilton UK with front-end and detailed engineering and construction management done with Jacobs UK and Singapore. Substantial annual energy savings of about 820 TJ were achieved for this project.

Asia Pacific Breweries (Singapore)

Project Title: Retrofitting of process cooling plant

Sub-zero cooling is required in various stages of the beer brewing process (e.g. wort cooling, fermentation, de-aerated water, yeast storage). An ammonia refrigeration plant, which was commissioned in 1989 and consisted of 4 STAL compressors, was used to meet the cooling demand. From a benchmarking study, it was found that the efficiency of the refrigeration plant was poorer than the industry standard (4 kWh/HL* compared to 3.4 kWh/HL).

APB studied its process cooling requirements and found that the alcohol water supply and return temperatures for wort cooling and blending water could be increased as shown in the table below. Hence, APB installed two new cascading compressors to provide cooling for the wort cooling and blending water lines. This resulted in a decrease in cooling demand from the existing ammonia plant and only up to 2 nos. of existing STAL compressors were required to operate.

This modification improved the efficiency of the refrigeration plant to 3.2 kWh/HL and resulted in an annual energy savings of about 1.5 GWh.

* 1 hectolitre (HL) = 100 litres

ExxonMobil Asia Pacific (Honourable Mention)

Project Title:ExxonMobil Singapore Chemical Plant (SCP) energy optimisation using Model Predictive Control (MPC)

Model predictive control (MPC) is an advanced controls technology that allows adjustments of multiple variables under different operating constraints. The ExxonMobil Singapore Chemical Plant has deployed MPC in various operations to optimize the use of energy in the complex.

• Olefins: Use of MPC to optimize propylene and ethylene refrigeration systems, thereby reducing the steam requirements for product recovery.
• Aromatics: Use of MPC in extractive distillation operation, reducing the steam consumption via automation of key energy variables using multi-constraint optimization.

Specialty Elastomers: Application of MPC to propylene refrigeration system and refrigeration compressor operation resulted in reduction of energy consumption, which was estimated to be around 99 GWh per year.

GlobalFoundries Singapore & Edwards Technologies Singapore Pte Ltd (Honourable Mention)

Project Title: Replacement of combustion chamber for thermal abatement units

Thermal abatement units are used to break down process gases such as silane, tetrafluoromethane, ammonia, hexafluoroethane, nitrogen trifluoride, nitrous oxide and chlorine trifluoride for safe disposal into the atmosphere. To reduce liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) consumption, Globalfoundries and Edwards Technologies retrofitted 35 nos. of thermal abatement units by halving the size of the combustion chamber, from 12 inches to 6 inches, and reducing the nozzle size from 24mm to 16mm. To ensure that the gas residence time and destruction efficiency remain unchanged, the total abatement capacity (i.e. the combustor and the weir) is kept constant by increasing the length of the weir. Figure 1 shows a thermal abatement unit before and after the retrofit.

Figure 1: (left) Before retrofit, (right) After retrofit

The smaller nozzles have been experimentally shown to give improved performance with fluorine and low dielectric constant materials. The smaller cross section of the nozzles also enabled

• the fuel radicals to mix more easily with the core of the process flow, and
• a higher LPG velocity into the combustor so that the process gases can mix with a greater volume of the burner gases before reacting in a smaller combustion region.

The better mixing of process gases with burner gases resulted in energy efficiency improvement. The annual LPG consumption was reduced by 31%, from 613 to 420 tonnes. This translated to an annual energy savings of US$200,000 and an annual carbon abatement of about 640 tonnes.

Keppel Shipyard (Honourable Mention)

Project Title: Energy efficient ventilation blower

Air ventilation blowers are used for air ventilation within confined spaces in the shipyard. Prior to the retrofit, Keppel Shipyard used more than 340 nos. of 7.5 kW blowers to provide 24-hour ventilation.The blowers had right angles and sharp transitions within the air chamber, resulting in high air resistance and turbulence that impeded air flow.

To improve efficiency, Keppel Shipyard adopted a new air chamber design for 50 nos. of blowers. The new design has streamlined air flow path from a bell shaped inlet all the way to the multiple outlets to help guide the inflow air to the fan impellers. As a result, the air resistance and turbulence within the air chamber is reduced. This made it possible for Keppel Shipyard to use a more efficient fan impeller and a smaller capacity motor (3.7 kW) to reduce energy consumption while maintaining the same air flow rate.

Based on the reduction in power consumption of the 50 nos. of blowers, the annual energy savings is 720 MWh. This translated to an energy efficiency improvement of 7.1% at system level and 1.4% at facility level.

LHT Holdings (Honourable Mention)

Project Title:Sustainable energy efficiency using horticulture & industrial waste wood for biomass & green products technology

As part of the national efforts in moving Singapore towards a zero-waste nation, LHT began its journey through a “Zero Waste Management” project. LHT uses the wood waste collected from industries and horticulture as a fuel source for its 4.5 MW cogeneration plant to generate stream and electricity. The steam and electricity generated are used in the drying, pressing and steaming processes in the production of engineered compressed wood (i.e. technical wood). As a result, LHT need not operate its natural gas fired boilers.

LHT achieved an annual savings of 878 MWh or $99,791. Based on the life cycle carbon analysis done by Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), the project resulted in 45% reduction in carbon emissions.

Molex Singapore (Honourable Mention)

Project Title: Plating line blower project

Compressed air was used extensively in the plating process to air-wipe and minimise chemical drag-out solution losses. However, the compressed air system was highly energy intensive, expensive and inefficient as most of the energy (>90%) was converted into heat.

To conserve energy and remain competitive, Molex Singapore commissioned a Global Lean Six Sigma team to explore and seek the best plating knowledge from other plants (e.g. Shanghai, Chengdu). From the study, the team came up with the idea of using blowers as a cost- and energy-efficient alternative to compressed air.

By innovatively integrating the blower units (e.g. 5 operating and 1 standby) into the existing plating lines, improving the air-knives design, and shortening the air delivery system (e.g. shorter air piping by placing blower units directly below the plating chemical baths), the team successfully improved the energy efficiency of the plating process without compromising the quality of the plated parts.

The successful implementation of the project resulted in an annual energy savings of about 5 GWh ($683,000) or 54% savings at the system level.

3.Award Category: Outstanding Energy Managers of the Year

This recognises outstanding Energy Managers who have demonstrated leadership in driving energy efficiency improvement across the organisation, and played an instrumental role in promoting energy efficiency initiatives within the organisation.

Mr Eric Leung Wing Chuen

Corporate Facilities Director

ASM Technology Singapore Pte Ltd

Mr Eric Leung is the Corporate Facilities Director and Energy Manager of ASM Pacific Technology. He is also the overall-in-charge of the facilities management of all nine manufacturing plants in Asia, which include three plants in Singapore. Each plant has a local Facility Manager (FM) who handles the daily operations of facilities management and energy efficiency (EE) improvement programmes, and all the nine FMs report to Mr Leung.

As a Singapore Certified Energy Manager (SCEM) with an MSc in Facilities and Environment Management and more than 25 years of experience in the industry, Mr Leung has led EE initiatives in his company and worked closely with the FMs to identify EE goals and objectives for each of the plants. He also chairs the monthly EE meetings with the FMs, who will report on their plant’s energy consumption and the progress of their energy reduction plans.

Mr Leung has set a high target of achieving 30% energy reduction from 2012 to 2017. During the past few years, Mr Leung has also led his team in identifying and implementing EE improvement projects across all nine ASM plants. Through his dedication and efforts, Mr Leung has helped ASM Pacific Technology achieve a total of 23.1% energy reduction from 2012 to 2015.

Mr Mohamed Shahril Bin Jaffar

Plant Engineering, EH&S Manager cum Fire Safety manager & WSHO

Panasonic Appliances Refrigeration Devices Singapore

Mr Mohamed Shahril Bin Jaffar is the Manager of Plant Engineering, Environment, Health and Safety Department at Panasonic Appliances Refrigeration Devices Singapore. He is also the Energy Manager who leads the company’s Energy Saving Project Team. Starting as a process engineer, he took on the role of an energy manager in 1999 when he was entrusted by the factory to lead energy management activities. Mr Shahril’s 22 years of experience in process engineering has helped him to look for energy efficiency (EE) improvements in not only the factory facilities, but also in the manufacturing processes.

Mr Shahril is very involved in driving EE in his factory and is constantly looking out for new EE projects, as well as alternative ways to fund EE projects. To avoid utilising his factory’s CAPEX expenditure for EE projects, he approached companies to initiate collaborative projects that would not require any initial investment from Panasonic.

Mr Shahril believes in teaching future generations the importance of environment preservation. For the past 7 years, he and his team have been hosting annual student visits to its ‘eco ideas’ factory through the Environment Champion Industrial Module (ECIM) programme. Through this programme, students learn about Panasonic’s green manufacturing process, including waste metal recycling, waste water treatment process and the use of energy saving products.

Mr Shahril has shown initiative in building his own capability in EE. He is the first Diploma holder to have attained the Singapore Certified Energy Manager certification.

4.Commendation in Best Energy Efficiency Practices in the Public Sector

Recognises outstanding public sector agencies that have demonstrated exemplary commitment in adopting good energy efficiency practices and have been proactive in implementing energy efficiency improvement measures for their buildings. There are two categories: a) Large building and b) School.

Large Building

Ministry of Manpower

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) Services Centre was designed with sustainability in mind. Some of the innovative green features incorporated were:-

• Use of passive displacement ventilation system, which eliminated fan power and reduced energy wastage by not cooling the ceiling space, in large customer service halls
• Use of sprinkler water tank as a thermal energy storage system to serve the building’s air-conditioning night load

Regular programmes and campaigns on energy conservation were conducted for stakeholders and staff. These campaigns included Corporate Social Responsibility Day and Earth Hours. With strong management support, MOM has fostered a green and sustainable culture in MOM Services Centre.

MOM Services Centre achieved an outstanding chiller plant efficiency of 0.538 kW/RT and Energy Efficiency Index (EEI) of 128.82 kWh/m2-year. Although the building has a very efficient baseline, energy consumption was further reduced by 8% in 2015, compared to 2013 level.

National Institute of Education

The National Institute of Education (NIE) campus was conceptualised to incorporate good passive design such as North-South orientation, fixtures to allow for natural light, extensive use of sunscreen, ceiling overhangs and natural ventilation.

NIE started its energy conservation efforts with a “low cost no cost” strategy when it began operation in 2000. After its initial successes, the Development and Estate Department (DED) decided to be more ambitious and adopted a “retro-commissioning” strategy. Some of its key energy conservation measures were:

• Modification of the chiller plant to a variable primary flow system
• Integration of variable air volume (VAV) and motion sensors with the booking system to control air-conditioning
• Installation of green roof at Admin block as thermal insulation
• Installation of low-e double glaze skylight and thermal insulation at the canteen
• Greening of data centre
• Retrofit of lighting system
• Upgrade of building management system

Good building performance over the years was ensured through the practice of continuous monitoring using sub-metering and accurate instrumentation. With accurate instrumentation installed at the chiller plant in 2011, NIE was able to continually optimise and sustain their chiller system efficiency at about 0.6 kW/RT.

A strong culture of energy management is fostered within the campus. Energy efficiency is also a regular discussion topic with NIE’s senior management.

NIE’s energy consumption has reduced progressively from 17 million kWh in 2001 to 9.2 million kWh (45.8% reduction) in 2015, despite an increase in their gross floor area.

School

St. Andrew’s Junior College

St Andrew’s Junior College (SAJC) took a multi-pronged approach to raise awareness on environmental and energy conservation issues.

In 2013, the college partnered with South East CDC and Chloros Solutions (a green consultancy company) to train students in basic energy auditing. From the findings of the energy audit, it was found that the air-conditioners and the fluorescent lamps were the most energy intensive consumers in the college. This led to a greater focus on monitoring the usage of the air-conditioners and plans to replace the fluorescent lamps with energy efficient LED lamps.

The college subsequently developed its own android apps to centrally monitor and control the air-conditioning systems. This system was synchronised with the venue booking system to reduce energy wastage in unoccupied areas.

The students also shared their energy audit findings and thoughts at various platforms. They had presented their work to fellow schoolmates and St. Andrew’s Junior School students, and created a poster on energy saving tips to share with the community during the Clean and Green Week 2013.

Through concerted efforts from staff and students, the annual electricity consumption in the college was reduced by 12.1% in 2015, compared to 2013 level.