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LSI CorporationFort Collins, COLSI Corporation "a leading provider of innovative silicon, systems and software technologies that enable products which seamlessly bring people, information and digital content together." The majority of LSI's business is developing and providing technology for data storage semiconductors, storage systems and networking. The California-based corporation, which reported revenues of $2.68 billion in 2008, operates four dozen facilities in fifteen countries around the world. Four of those facilities are located in Colorado - in Boulder, Colorado Springs, Longmont and Fort Collins. In 2007 LSI joined EPA Climate Leaders and made a commitment to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 15% by 2012. The first step toward this goal was creating an Energy Conservation Team, composed of facilities managers and others with relevant expertise from around the country, to share information and to establish common goals and processes. In 2008, LSI implemented an energy efficiency retrofit project at its Fort Collins facility that is already yielding substantial energy and economic savings. The 150,000 square foot facility was originally constructed in two phases in 1978 and 1980. It currently houses 230 employees, whose work predominantly involves technology engineering and reliability testing. Cooling the building and the servers it contains is the most energy-intensive activity. Bob Barley, who manages LSI facilities in the central US, recognized the potential for significant energy and cost savings by upgrading the building for more efficient operation. He and his team implemented a major energy efficiency retrofit in 2008 that included the following measures:
Barley and his staff did their own project planning and management. The City of Fort Collins Climate Wise team provided engineering assistance and other general support. Johnson Controls was contracted for the BAS installation, Carrier did the VFD installation, and a local lighting contractor was hired for the lighting retrofit. The project has demonstrated even better results than expected. Year-on-year comparisons indicate an annual reduction of about 2 million KWh of electricity and about 110,000 therms of natural gas. In addition to making a significant contribution to the corporation's overall 15% GHG reduction target, this also represents substantial economic benefit for the company. In the first nine months of 2009, LSI saved $190,000 on its energy bill as a direct result of efficiency measures installed in 2008. Barley conservatively estimates ongoing annual savings of $200,000, which represents roughly a 25% reduction in overall energy costs, and a 5-7% reduction in total operational costs for the Fort Collins facility. The total cost for the complete retrofit project was approximately $250,000. A significant portion of the up-front costs were offset by $90,000 in incentive payments from the Business Efficiency Program, offered jointly by Fort Collins Utilities and Platte River Power Authority. The payback time for the project was expected to be 24 months. However, with the rebates and the better-than-anticipated energy savings, the actual payback time will be less than one year, with LSI and the environment benefiting from the ongoing annual energy savings for years to come. Barley notes that LSI has not rested on the results of the 2008 project described here. In fact, the success of this project helped him garner support and additional funding for continued energy efficiency projects. In 2009 they installed a VFD on the third building chiller. Plans for the near future include installing a smaller, demand-sized compressor and evaluating the potential for more efficient exterior lighting at the Fort Collins facility, as well as initiating new energy efficiency projects at other locations. |
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© 2002-
Southwest Energy Efficiency Project, 2260 Baseline Rd. Suite 212, Boulder, CO 80302 phone: (303) 447-0078 fax: (303) 786-8054 email: info@swenergy.org |
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