Mill with High Operating Costs Seeks Energy Savings

North American Paper Company

Challenge:

Reduce operating costs of mill rotating equipment.

Solution:

• Working with mill engineers, a number of likely pump candidates were selected from across the mill
• A three day on-site assessment was performed on various pumps across the mill
• A detailed report was completed with the anticipated energy savings and recommendations on how to realize those savings

Results:

• Recommended efficiency improvements for 23 pumps with a project energy and maintenance savings of $1.067 million on an investment of $591,000
• The mill challenged the anticipated energy savings by doing their own calculations. They found the anticipated savings to be very accurate
• VFDs were initially implemented on 5 applications with a yearly energy savings in excess of $102,000
• Additional cost savings were realized for impoved MTBF