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29/12/2011
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Close speed control of fans and pumps on a new cooling tower for process water, at Michelin's Dundee plant, has cut its annual energy consumption by a massive 1,500 MWh.
 The tyres plant – which produces 24,000 tyres per day – is using ac drives from Control Techniques to match supply with demand, and says it has reduced cooling plant power consumption, when idling, to about that of a domestic kettle.
"I measured actual cooling requirements and realised that there were potential savings to be made by putting in variable-speed drives to match the supply of cooling water to demand," explains project manager Mike Barklie.
"It was a major investment, but we have achieved a tremendously successful result that has a return on investment of less than three years," he adds.
Control Techniques drives are used throughout Michelin plants worldwide, with several hundred installed on production lines, stirrers, extruders, pumps and fans throughout the Dundee factory alone.
Its new SPX Marley high-efficiency cooling tower has two 30kW cooling fans for the dual 300m3 cells and there are six large pumps – three 22kW pumps for the hot water to the tower and three 90kW, 4.4 bar pumps to return the chilled water back to the factory.
All fans and pumps are fitted with Control Techniques Commander SK AC drives, each of which receives a speed reference from the controlling PLC system that monitors pressure, cooled water temperature, levels in the cooling water sumps etc, and predicts trends.
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Author
Brian Tinham
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