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.

Results

  • 5.6m

    kWh of annual energy savings
  • €324k

    Annual cost savings
  • 1.6m

    kg of annual CO2 savings

Key achievements

Energy savings

This project has resulted in annual energy savings of 5.58 million kWh. This has translated to significant financial savings.

Improved internal efficiency

The project has brought about maintenance and operating efficiencies across Abbott Ireland.

Systems supporting future initiatives

Integration of Building and Energy Management System data allows improved key performance indicators to be developed for future initiatives.

Introducing new industry standard

The method to control the chiller water from the return temperature has potential to become an industry standard for HVAC cooling.

The project

 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.” 
Peter De Bie, Environmental Engineer, Abbott

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.

Client

Peter DeBie
Environmental Engineer
Abbott Ireland
Diagnostic Division

Project Manager

John Hensey
Agility Knowledge Management Services
www.akms.ie

Energy Consultant

Donall O’Brien
EM3
www.em3.ie