Like other mission critical sites, pharmaceutical manufacturers require 100 percent reliability in to maintain product quality, ensure the validation of test results and eliminate manufacturing downtime. This high level of reliability does not have not come at the cost of energy efficiency.

Pharma facilities are energy intensive operations and the HVAC system (chilled water, steam and hot water plant and air distribution) typically consumes up to 65% of the energy used, according to research by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Pharma facility directors can reduce energy costs even in the most demanding environments by making a few key decisions.

Because optimizing the efficiency of dynamic systems, such as a chilled water plant, requires continuous oversight and action, the trick is to implement solutions that automatically optimize equipment interaction. Not only does this automated optimization take the guesswork out of efficiently running HVAC systems, this eliminates manual adjustments that can waste untold amounts of energy.

Secondly, having the equipment ‘correctly’ sequenced once is simply not enough to meet ongoing operational demands. Static chilled water temperature setpoints are a huge waste of energy, not to mention place undue wear and tear on plant equipment. Automated optimization solutions will vary the chilled water temperature, cooling towers, condenser pumps, chiller staging, and chilled water pump operation to maximize efficiency without compromising space conditions, temperature or humidity requirements.

Lastly, to be considered an optimized system, the equipment must run and respond holistically and to real-time, live operating conditions. This optimization requirement is impractical to expect with any solution that requires the manual review of collected data.

Automated Optimization Solutions

At tekWorx, pragmatic solutions and proven chilled water plant optimization technology help companies minimize plant kW/ton while maximizing the use of existing equipment and limiting implementation downtime. Our Xpress® solution, which utilizes the Niagara 4® platform, uses adaptive algorithms to continuously analyze real-time process variables and then automatically adjusts key parameter values for real optimization.

Easily integrated with any BAS, any mechanical configuration and any equipment make/model, Xpress® is the leading choice for effective, operator-free optimization.[/et_pb_text]

Allergan chilled water plant optimization results

tekWorx recently worked with the Allergan Global Energy team to optimize their Irvine, CA, manufacturing site’s chilled water plant. While producing popular products such as BOTOX®, JUVEDERM® and LATISSE®, the company struggled to meet an installed capacity of 6,300 tons due to hydronic issues and the load shedding required on high temperature days.

After an initial assessment, the tekWorx engineering team devised a customized adaptive control strategy enabling the site to:

• Maximize capacity using minimal kW/ton
• Improve equipment utilization, which in turn improves redundancy
• Decrease manual intervention
• Reduce equipment wear and tear

The team integrated the Xpress® solution with Allergan’s BAS to improve utilization and performance – all with minimal downtime. This pragmatic solution yielded tremendous bottom-line savings: