Smart Grid, Smart Water

Key Facts

• Combining leadership, lean manufacturing and Smart infrastructure IT tools to develop a culture of continuous improvement to drive significant improvements around water and energy efficiency at a wafer manufacturing facility that consumes 3.5 million gallons of water per day.
• Reducing waste generation and improving process efficiencies in its semiconductor manufacturing operations has been a continual focus at IBM Burlington. In order to achieve water and energy savings, which resulted in reduction in associated CO2 emissions, the company brought together the following components:
  

  • Smart Water & Electrical Grid
  • Statistical Process Control
  • Peak Power Management
  • Effective use of sensor data
  • ISO 14001 Compliance
  • Lean Manufacturing Tools
  • Employee Participation & Awareness
• The project took 24 months to implement
• For the overall solution, the likely ROI is less than 12 months. For approximately 100 individual projects implemented annually, most projects executed had an ROI less than 12 months
• In addition to cost savings, benefits included:
  
  • Improved morale
  • Acknowledged as Center of Excellence for the IBM Corporation
  • Recognized IBM leader in continuing innovation
  • External Recognition
  • Manufacturing process optimization
  • Water treatment process improvements
  • Water quality improvements
  • Reduced Chemical usage
  • Reduced Waste Generation
  • Improved Relationship with Regulatory Agencies.
• The actual (or likely) cost of the project is approximately $1M US/yr to implement all projects
• The actual (or projected) savings from the project are

  an average of $3M/yr US in water and water associated energy

  For 2001-2009, first-year savings from energy conservation projects have reached $27 million, with an additional $21 million in cost avoidance, for total program savings of $48 million over the period

• The primary sponsor for the project was Janette Bombardier, Site Operations Manager and John DiToro, Semiconductor Solutions Vice President, Burlingotn Semiconductor Manufacturing and Site Location Executive

What was the impact?

• Did you use a specific methodology or third party to calculate CO2e or KWh savings?

  Electricity and fuel savings are either metered or calculated; CO2e savings from fuel are based on EPA emission factors; CO2e savings from electricity are based on utility-specific carbon footprint data
• 342,000,000KWh of energy have been saved on this project

• Comments on energy savings

  The solutions have led to savings of 5.9 million kWh per year, or 342,000,000 KWh for the period 2001 - 2009. These are ongoing savings. The reported energy conservation metrics count only 12 months of savings from each project, although project lifetime and associated savings typically are much greater (5 to 30 years).

  In addition, other savings result from:
  

  • Ultra Pure Water treatment generated energy reductions, 4 million kwhr/yr.
  • The Thin Film Composite RO membrane conversion resulted in 81% reduction (510 kw to 93 kw) in electrical power required for the Reverse Osmosis process.
  • Waste water related energy savings of 1.1 million kwhr/yr
  • Elimination of raw water pumps had an energy savings of 0.77 million kwhr/yr. This was a 100% elimination of pumping needs by fully utilizing the kinetic energy provided to us by the local water utility when we purchase raw water.

  
  
• 37,234 t CO₂e has been saved on this project

• Notes about Carbon savings/calculations

  Savings accrued over 2001 -2009. Indirect CO2e emissions from electricity use are low due to utility purchases from low carbon power sources.
• 186,000 litres of Diesel has been saved on this project

• Comments on fuel savings

  Diesel saved: 186,000 MMBTU total fuel savings (Natural Gas, #2 Fuel Oil and #6 Fuel Oil) CO2e savings from fuel are calculated based on natural gas as primary fuel (#6 fuel oil and #2 fuel oil are backup fuels) from 2001 - 2009.
  

• Comments on other resources saved

  • 27% reduction in raw water purchases since 2001 (9% since 2005), representing over 400 million gallons per year saved 
  • 45,000 pounds of reduced waste from the waste water treatment plant
  • Phosphorus: 50% reduction (2,049 pounds)
  • Total Suspended Solids: 46 % reduction (10,006 pounds);
  • Iron: 13 % reduction (135 pounds)
  • Fluoride: 38 % reduction (33,311 pounds)
• The project has independent verification for results

Making it Happen

• The following regulations or incentives allowed the business case to be more attractive

  State of Vermont Efficiency program, ISO 14001 Standard, Increasing utility and energy costs

• Barriers experienced during the initiation of the project

• Comments regarding barriers

  Barriers also included 'Maintaining continuous operation of the facility'. Our primary job is to ensure that our semiconductor manufacturing area has no impact on the quality of the commodities we supply (such as power, ultrapure water) or the reliability of the supply (24 x 7 x 365). All improvements in energy and water need to be assessed and implemented without impacting quality and reliability, and with minimal downtime. In addition, ideas that require implementation within the manufacturing area may require extensive process chemistry analysis and experimentation to ensure no subtle changes to our processes which will have an impact on product yield or quality. Barriers are overcome by doing thorough engineering analysis of the proposed projects, conducting risk mitigation and having well defined and coordinated implementation plans.

• Other comments regarding barriers preventing the successful completion of the project

  Perceived barriers require breakthrough thinking to overcome or patience to wait for an opportune moment. Our experience shows perceived barriers can vanish when:

  • Emerging technologies provide new opportunities for savings.
  • Increasing cost of energy justifies larger investments.
  • Changes occur in the regulatory climate
  • Business ROI requirements change

• How were they overcome?

  This is an ongoing project, one should never be viewed as complete. Barriers are overcome by doing thorough engineering analysis of the proposed projects, conducting risk mitigation and having well defined and coordinated implementation plans.

• What were the key lessons learnt?

  Critical Success Factors:

  • Infrastructure to provide data on usage
  • IT tools to extract important information from the data
  • Process for improvement not just a list of projects
  • Clear measurable goals for all stakeholders
  • Broad employee involvement to generate quality ideas