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THE Singapore unit of Globalfoundries has won the Best Practices in energy efficiency award this year at the EENP Awards for a project that involves switching from hot to cold water for post chemical de-ionised (DI) water rinse, which is a low carbon innovative process.

In the wafer fabrication process, chemicals were used extensively to clean wafers. Traditionally, hot DI water generated by diesel fired boilers was used to rinse off the chemicals. This resulted in high diesel consumption.

To reduce diesel consumption, Globalfoundries explored the use of cold DI water for rinsing. Through rigorous engineering evaluation, chemical rinsing with cold DI water proved to be equally effective and efficient without affecting the functionality and reliability of the end-products. Hence, the company implemented the process change to switch from using hot DI water to cold DI water.

And instead of the large centralised boilers, localised optimum size boilers were placed near the manufacturing equipment to produce DI water for critical process tools.

This resulted in the saving of energy as well as the consumption of 6,821 litres of diesel fired per day. An annual energy reduction of 24,897 MWh was achieved which led to an annual carbon emission reduction of 6,875 tonnes CO2 equivalent.

As a result of these efforts, the company was able to decommission the diesel fired boilers in December last year.

Says K C Ang, senior vice president & general manager of Globalfoundries Singapore Pte Ltd (GFS): “GFS is very pleased to once again be recognised with the Award as the company completed another impressive energy efficient project. The GFS team challenged the conventional manufacturing process method all these years and adopted a positive change and a shift in paradigm to invoke disruptive and innovative change.

“Improving energy efficiency is a win-win for the company and the environment. The firm saves on energy usage and remains cost competitive. Going green also helps develop an eco-friendly and a low carbon manufacturing economy.”

Manufacturing companies like GFS should always do their best to be cost competitive by reducing energy usage through energy efficient projects and to be good corporate citizens with social responsibilities to the environment and climate, says Mr Ang. This way, the country and companies can be competitive and can make the transition to a successful low carbon economy. All companies should share and benchmark best practices so as to implement projects with lesser risk.

At GFS a company-wide energy management policy committed to by the management team has been implemented to ensure that the company plays its responsible corporate citizen role in energy usage optimisation, to be cost-competitive and go green with regard to the environment.

To achieve this, GFS has put together a team with members from various cross functional departments to keep coming up with energy efficiency solutions and projects. Examples of such projects include the re-design of furnace combustion chambers into smaller ones so that lesser LPG is needed. Also, GFS had upgraded its old chillers for cleanrooms to new and improved ones to conserve more energy. Other projects such as using LED lights to conserve energy and more solar power and panels to generate alternative electricity supply have also been undertaken.

GFS is developing new in-house capability in energy efficiency. Under its company-wide energy management policy, all the staff including the in-house cross functional teams are encouraged to look out for and contribute new ideas on energy efficiency. A team of energy manager and specialised engineers has been recruited and trained in various aspects of energy efficient expertise and equipment.

Moving forward, Mr Ang says that GFS “will continue to encourage all our staff to be energy efficient and to be prepared to embrace positive changes and sometimes challenge the norm and the conventional methods”.

“We should overcome resistance to positive changes especially if the new ideas work and improve our energy efficiency efforts. We should also involve the right people for the project team who will carry out the proper feasibility study, project analysis, intensive discussion, plan and thorough checks before the actual implementation.”

Globalfoundries Singapore is one of the largest semiconductor manufacturing companies in Singapore in terms of revenue and staff, investing more than S$4 billion over the last seven years. The company expanded its investments in Singapore by S$4.3 billion over the 2010 to 2017 period through its 5×8 inch giga-wafer fab plants and 1×12 inch giga-wafer fab plant by upgrading to new manufacturing equipment, productivity equipment (including the autonomous mobile robots), and also the conversion of the Fab 6 from 200 mm (8 inch) to 300 mm (12 inch) plant in 2013. It now has the capacity to produce 93,000 units of 8 inch wafers per month and 70,000 units of 12 inch wafers per month in Singapore.

Along with its manufacturing investments, GFS says that it has also pumped money into the R&D semicon technology establishing advanced emerging memory Magnetic RAM, Power Management, High Voltage, Ultra-Low Voltage and Ultra Low Leakage devices, MEMS Sensors as well as RF products.

The company says that its annual export revenue is more than S$2 billion and it has a staff strength of 5,500 in Singapore.

THE second Outstanding Energy Manager of the Year award winner Pandurangan Siva started his career in Asahi Kasei Plastics Singapore (APS) in 2007 as a senior engineer in the engineering department. His first project was to conduct a plant-wide energy audit with grant support from the National Environment Agency (NEA).

The following year he successfully implemented two of the recommendations – optimisation of cooling water pumping system and heat recovery from reactor outlet gas – and achieved significant annual energy savings of about 16 GWh. This motivated him to continue to drive energy efficiency (EE) within the company.

As production processes consumed more than 80 per cent of the facility’s total energy consumption, there was a need to raise awareness of EE among the production teams. Hence, in 2012, Mr Siva convinced the management to task the production teams with the energy management responsibility. He worked together with the production teams to set EE objectives and targets, provided training and ensured that they understood the objectives and improvements to be made before any project implementation.

Mr Siva, who is now energy manager at APS, is a Singapore certified energy manager. He has a Bachelor of Technology in Chemical Engineering and Master of Science in Safety Health & Environmental Technology.

“Energy cost for chemical industries is around 20 per cent of the operating cost. Most of these industries were set up 20 years back and use energy intensive processes and equipment in their operations. Through improving energy efficiency, industries can reduce their operating cost significantly. There are more perks of being energy efficient, it is not just operating cost. Industries can also reduce direct CO2 emission carbon tax, the price hike in raw materials, utility and other logistics services due to indirect CO2 tax,” Mr Siva highlights.

The current carbon tax for direct CO2 emission is S$5/ton. This tax is projected to grow more than three times higher in the near future, he says. By increasing energy efficiency now, industries can benefit through cumulative cost reduction over the life cycle.

Says Mr Siva: “Most of the corporates understand energy efficiency, but business competition, reduced margins and longer return on investment discourage them from taking immediate steps to implement EE. However, government agencies like EDB and NEA offer some attractive productivity improvement schemes to provide a helping hand to ease the corporate’s decision making.”

Singapore is an energy secured country in terms of uninterrupted power supply due to surplus electricity generation and regulation on production and distribution of the retailers by Energy Market Authority (EMA).

“The cost of energy utilities such as electricity and steam in the open market enhanced the business competitiveness among the suppliers. Consumers could choose the best supplier of the energy utility. However, no regulating authority controls their price, they only monitor and influence the cost of energy utilities,” says Mr Siva.

“In future, the energy utility retailers may pass down their direct CO2 emission tax to their consumers. If energy utility cost increases, consumers will increase their product cost to their downstream customers. It will be a cascading effect for Singapore chemical industries.”

Mr Siva says that his company is focused on its approach and emphasises energy efficiency in its operations. In 2005, APS implemented major modifications for heat integration to reduce steam consumption. The company installed three units of waste heat recovery boilers to produce low pressure steam. In 2008, it conducted a level three audit and identified many energy efficiency measures.

“After the initial success in energy saving in APS through a couple of applications, we brought about a huge cost saving for our operations and from then on energy efficiency has become a part and parcel of our operations,” says Mr Siva.

In recent years, APS has concentrated on process optimisation to reduce steam and water consumption. Every financial year, APS top management sets up objectives and targets to reduce consumption of steam and water for the production team. The production team will develop their management programmes to achieve the target. They closely monitor the effectiveness of the programme and update top management at the monthly meeting. At the end of the year, the result will be reviewed. Since 2014, APS has reduced its energy cost significantly.

As part of the plan for promoting energy efficiency, the company has decided to implement structured energy management system and conduct a level three energy audit. It is in constant search to implement new projects to reduce direct CO2 and emissions.

“APS is further developing an operation team to handle more energy efficiency project implementation. We also plan to provide training to other aspiring and potential engineers to become energy managers.”

Mr Siva says: “Being a chemical and process engineer, energy/electricity was not my area of specialisation. However, after starting to involve myself in the project and seeing the amount of wastage, it got me completely engrossed and every unit of energy saved gave me a sense of satisfaction. I did not realise it would lead me to this national level recognition. I am pleased to receive this prestigious award and this will motivate me further to look for other improvements in energy savings.”

THE carbon tax to be introduced from next year is part of a national strategy to reduce carbon emissions in Singapore. It is expected to encourage businesses here to improve their energy efficiency, to become sustainable, and to reduce their operating costs in the process. The carbon tax is an important step to sustain the country’s clean, green and liveable environment, and to help Singapore transform into a low carbon economy.

The plan to introduce the carbon tax from 2019 was announced by the Minister for Finance in Budget 2017. The tax will be applied on facilities that emit 25,000 tonnes or more of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in a year and cover the six GHGs that Singapore currently reports to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which is an international environmental treaty.

“The government is building a low carbon future for Singapore through climate change policies and carbon pricing. Globally, there is also an increasing impetus for companies to re-think their traditional energy intensive practices, and adopt better processes and innovation to use energy more efficiently,” Tan Meng Dui, chief executive officer of National Environment Agency (NEA), told The Business Times.

“Singapore companies should put in place structured energy management systems and regularly assess their facilities to identify feasible ways to reduce energy consumption. Companies can also leverage platforms such as the Energy Efficiency National Partnership (EENP) programme for thought leadership and new ideas in energy management. By taking these steps early and proactively, Singapore companies will be better positioned for sustainable growth and to maintain their competitiveness internationally.”

As for the carbon tax, to give the industry more time to adjust and implement energy efficiency projects, the tax will start at S$5 per tonne of emissions in the first instance, from 2019 to 2023. The government will review the tax rate by 2023, according to the National Climate Change Secretariat in the Prime Minister’s office.

The intention is to increase the carbon tax to between S$10 and S$15 per tonne of emissions by 2030. In doing so, the government will take into account international climate change developments, the progress of the country’s emissions mitigation efforts, and its economic competitiveness. The first payment of the carbon tax will be in 2020, based on emissions in calendar year 2019.

On its part, the government will help companies improve energy efficiency as highlighted by the Minister for Finance and the Minister for the Environment & Water Resources during this year’s budget debate. The Finance Minister said that in introducing a carbon tax of S$5 per tonne of emissions from 2019 to 2023, Singapore joins many countries that have done so to step up global efforts to address climate change.

To help businesses to reduce carbon emissions the government is setting aside funds from 2019 to 2023 to support them in improving energy efficiency. The Minister for Finance said in parliament that he is prepared to spend more than what is collected as carbon tax in the first five years to support worthwhile projects. This will help businesses lower their energy costs and potentially more than offset the impact of the tax. This means that by taking early action, companies that improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions can become more competitive internationally.

At the same time the Energy Conservation Act (ECA) has been enhanced to improve energy efficiency in the industrial sector. This includes strengthening the measurement and reporting requirements for greenhouse gas emissions, requiring companies to undertake regular energy efficiency opportunity assessments and introducing minimum energy performance standards for common industrial equipment and systems.

These new measures will help Singapore to achieve its pledge under the Paris Agreement on climate change to reduce emissions intensity by 36 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030, and to stabilise greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with the aim of peaking around 2030.

Based on the energy use reports submitted by companies regulated under the ECA, electric motors accounted for about 80 per cent of their electricity consumption in 2015. Electric motors are found in almost every industrial application such as crushing, grinding, mixing, pumping, conveying, compression, cooling and refrigeration.

The Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) has been extended to motors. This will lead to the phasing out of inefficient motor models from the market and push the market towards more efficient models. Besides enjoying life cycle cost savings from lower electricity consumption, companies will also reduce their carbon footprint.

At the same time, to encourage companies to design facilities to be energy efficient, from Oct 1, 2018, NEA requires companies investing in new facilities or major expansion that are designed to consume 54 tera-joules (TJ) or more of energy annually to: review the facility design for energy efficiency; identify economically feasible energy efficiency opportunities for incorporation into the facility design; and report the findings to National Environment Agency (NEA).

The national effort to promote energy efficiency got a big boost when the NEA, together with the Economic Development Board (EDB) and the Energy Market Authority (EMA), launched the Energy Efficiency National Partnership (EENP) programme in 2010. It is a voluntary partnership initiative for companies wishing to be more energy efficient, thereby enhancing their long-term business competitiveness and reducing their carbon footprint. The EENP programme aims to support companies in their energy efficiency efforts through learning network activities, provision of energy efficiency related resources, and recognition.

A key component of the EENP programme is the annual EENP Awards which aims to foster a culture of sustained energy efficiency improvement in the industry and public sectors. The EENP Awards also aims to encourage companies to adopt a proactive approach towards energy management by identifying and sharing best practices with other companies.

There are four award categories for industry: Excellence in Energy Management; Best Practices; Outstanding Energy Manager of the Year; and Outstanding Energy Services Provider of the Year. The EENP Awards also gives recognition to public sector individuals and organisations that demonstrate a high level of commitment towards sustained energy efficiency improvements and practices.

For instance, the award in the Excellence in Energy Management category recognises companies that have demonstrated a high level of commitment to excellence in energy management. The award recipient in this category this year is BASF South East Asia Pte Ltd. “Creating chemistry for a sustainable future is at the heart of what BASF does,” Dieter Vanneuville, site manager, Performance Chemicals, Jurong Island, BASF South East Asia Pte Ltd, told The Business Times.

In 2015, BASF set a global energy efficiency goal to achieve 90 per cent coverage of its primary energy demand through certified energy management systems at its production sites by 2020. Last year the company’s site in Jurong Island became the first BASF site in Southeast Asia to attain this goal – three years ahead of the target.

One of the two winners of the Outstanding Energy Manager of the Year award is Chen Jiayi, energy manager, SATS Ltd. This award category recognises outstanding energy managers who have demonstrated leadership in driving energy efficiency improvement across the organisation, and played an instrumental role in promoting energy efficiency initiatives within the organisation.

An energy manager at SATS since 2012, Mr Chen convinced the company’s senior management to embark on a series of energy efficiency projects like retrofitting of high bay lamps and chilled water systems, and optimisation of boilers. He helped his company management to understand the financial benefits of implementing such projects through life cycle cost analyses, and tapped various government incentive schemes to improve the economic feasibility of the projects. Mr Chen also made an effort to educate and convince the different business units on the benefits of energy efficiency.

Public sector agencies too have been doing their bit to improve energy efficiency. For instance, through concerted efforts by staff and support from management, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) recorded a huge 23.5 per cent saving in electricity in FY2017/2018 from FY2013/2014 baseline.

Similarly, the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) has achieved 30 and 50 per cent energy savings at its Woodlands and Tuas checkpoints. Measures implemented to reduce energy consumption includes: Retrofitting chiller plants at both checkpoints under the Guaranteed Energy Savings Performance (GESP) contracting model, which guarantees ICA a system efficiency of at least 0.601kW/RT and 0.612kW/RT respectively; progressively replacing all the existing non-LED lights with more energy efficient LED lights at both land checkpoints; and installing photovoltaic panels under the HDB’s SolarNova leasing scheme.

These measures are part of ICA’s energy efficiency improvement plan. Under the plan, ICA also seeks to educate its officers and external stakeholders on energy conservation. All these efforts led to an annual energy savings of about 14 million kWh for both land checkpoints.

The EENP Awards ceremony will be held today (Oct 11) at the Devan Nair Institute of Employment & Employability and it will be followed by an industry energy efficiency sharing session. Throughout the day, there will also be an exhibition featuring energy efficiency training providers, latest technical innovations and other energy solutions.

This year’s industrial energy efficiency sharing session will have talks by experts from Canada, Japan and the USA, sharing a range of energy efficiency related topics from the efficient operation of common industrial systems such as compressed air systems, to topics such as digital transformation and the use of Internet of Things (IoT).