Success Stories

International Rectifier (Singapore) Pte Ltd

Background
On 24 Feb 2014, International Rectifier (IR®), a world leader in power management technology, commenced production at its new state-of-the-art ultra-thin wafer processing facility in Singapore. This is IR’s first and currently only wafer processing facility in Asia.

Improve energy and water efficiency through design workshops
To identify opportunities for energy and water efficiency optimization, IR conducted a series of design workshops, which were co-funded under the Design for Efficiency (DfE) scheme. The design workshops were facilitated by a team of energy consultants with the participation of various stakeholders including IR’s facilities and finance teams, building contractor for the new facility, vendors and suppliers.

Photos taken during the design workshops

In the design workshops, the energy consultants and IR stakeholders reviewed the detailed design of IR’s cleanroom and facilities. Some ideas generated from the design workshops included right sizing of equipment, the use of more energy efficient equipment, installation of variable speed drives for equipment with variable loads, and improved piping design.

Improved Piping Design

This collaborative process involving diverse stakeholders helped IR identify cost-effective EE solutions early in the design stage. For example, by designing the piping and ducting with the minimum number of sharp bends and right angles (see photos), the pressure drop across the piping and ducting could be reduced. This in turn required smaller motors to pump liquid or blow air. The capital cost saved from the purchase of smaller motors was then used to purchase variable speed drives for the motor-driven equipment with variable loads. Smaller motors further reduced the heat load of IR’s facilities and hence lowered IR’s energy costs.

Results
The ideas identified in the design workshops could potentially help IR achieve energy savings of about 40% (compared to a typical clean room and infrastructure facilities design) and water recovery of about 50% from the reprocessing of used Ultra-pure water. All of the savings were achieved without additional capital investment by IR. Key success factors included support from IR’s senior management, the involvement of various stakeholders especially the IR operations team, the involvement of the energy consultants before the detailed design commenced, and the full cooperation of the building contractor.

Gemalto Pte Ltd

Background
Gemalto Pte Ltd is a digital security company, providing secure personal devices such as smart cards and tokens in addition to software applications and managed services.

Chiller plant optimisation
The existing chillers and associated equipment were overhauled and optimised. The result was a 30% improvement in chiller system efficiency.

AHU Retrofitting & Optimization
CO2-based controllers were installed to modulate fresh air intake into the AHUs. Ducts were reworked to increase return air flow into AHUs. Control valves were replaced.

Molex Singapore Pte Ltd

Background
Molex Singapore is a leading manufacturer of electronic and fibre optic connectors and interconnect components.

The energy appraisal of facility covered the chilled water system, air distribution system, compressed air system, lighting system and process cooling system.

Energy saving measures
Energy saving measures identified from the energy appraisal and subsequently implemented are:

- Replacing chiller with proper sizing and optimizing of chiller operations.
- Reducing energy consumption of pumps and cooling towers through use of variable speed drives (VSDs) to control flow rate
- Replacing metal halide lamps and fluorescent lamps with energy efficient induction lamps and LEDs
- Retrofitting of air compressors with modern efficient models and rectifying compressed air leakages

The above measures yielded Molex Singapore substantial annual energy savings with a short simple payback period.

Senoko Energy Supply Pte Ltd

Background
Senoko Energy is a power generation and retail company located in the northern part of Singapore.

Combine-Cycle Plant improvement works
Combine-Cycle Plant Re-heater Spray Valves and Combined-Cycle Plant High Pressure Spray Valve were discovered passing (allowing fluid to pass through despite being completely closed) and the defects were rectified during the planned shutdowns of the units. Steam that was initially lost through the passing valves can thereafter be utilised to generate more energy resulting in energy savings.

Singapore Oxygen Air Liquide Pte Ltd (SOXAL)

Background
Singapore Oxygen Air Liquide Pte Ltd (SOXAL) is an industrial gas company in South-east Asia, providing gases, equipment, services and packaged solutions to the Singapore manufacturing industry.

Shutting down of chiller plant at night
Before the implementation of this measure, the chiller plant was operated 24 hours daily although the facility only operates from 8am to 7pm on a 5.5-day week. The main reason for this was to prevent condensation from taking place.

The shutdown sequence was modified such that the Air Handling Units (AHUs) are switched off only after a period of time where the supply, exhaust and scrubber fans have stopped operation. This minimised condensation problems.

Retrofit of chiller plant
The existing chillers and associated pumps were replaced with more efficient ones. As a result, the chiller system efficiency improved by 38%.

Variable speed drives (VSDs) were installed on the new chilled water pumps, allowing them to run at a speed proportional to the cooling load demand.

Systems on Silicon Manufacturing Co. Pte Ltd (SSMC)

Background
Systems on Silicon Manufacturing Co. Pte Ltd (SSMC) is a semiconductor fabrication company offering CMOS, Embedded flash, Analog and Mixed Signal, RF and BCD process technologies provider of Embedded flash, Analog Mixed Signal, Power and CMOS foundry services.

Optimisation of chillers
To optimise SSMC's chillers, an optimal level of refrigerant charging was determined for best chiller efficiency. In addition, a controller was implemented to control and maintain optimal performance of the chillers under all operating or loading conditions.

Maxsteel Enterprise Pte Ltd

Background
Maxsteel Enterprise processes and distributes metal products in the form of coils and cut sheets. Prior to the retrofit, Maxsteel Enterprise used metal halide high bay lamps in its factory, warehouse and storage areas during the night. Skylights were used to light up the areas during the day. Maxsteel Enterprise also used high pressure sodium lamps in its outdoor areas.

Project description
To improve the energy efficiency of its facility, Maxsteel Enterprise replaced 67 nos. of metal halide high lamps and 8 nos. of high pressure sodium lamps with LED lamps. As a result, Maxsteel Enterprise reduced its lighting energy consumption by 53% and achieved an annual savings of the 22 MWh or $3,300.

 
Metal halide high bay lamps and LED high bay lamps