Kaltra’s advanced cooling solutions help realize massive power savings

At the Sanofi/France production site, the original chilled water plant functioned as initially intended, but a steady decline in energy performance and sharp increases in maintenance costs of the plant equipment were experienced by the customer. Prior to starting the upgrade project of the plant, the owners made the decision to invest by using technology giving the highest return over the lifecycle of the equipment.

The challenge was to improve performance while reducing energy consumption, keeping the same plant footprint and pipework, and provide the solution based on low-GWP refrigerant. After careful review of customer’s needs, Kaltra recommended a replacement of the existing chillers with new efficient models and an upgrade of the controls with a sequence management system to optimize the operation of the entire cooling plant.

Kaltra engineers specified four Lightstream Screw Inverter air-cooled chillers, which would provide the highest output while staying within the size and weight limitations of existing structures. The chillers proposed offer the environmentally-friendly R1234ze refrigerant and a 30-percent reduction in energy compared to the previously installed solution. The savings were due to the Kaltra’s microchannel technology, coupled with the inverter-driven compressors and chiller sequencer which were engineered for this installation. The sequence management system (SMS) easily interfaces with Modbus, so the customer was able to seamlessly integrate the SMS into building automation system.

Guided by the customer’s request to determine what return could be offered with the proposed energy-saving chillers, Kaltra engineers performed a comprehensive evaluation that included a return-on-investment calculation.

The customer’s expectations for energy savings were exceeded when an energy analysis showed a saving of almost €40,000 annually in electrical costs. Other significant savings were attributed to reduced maintenance costs.