The Challenge
As stated by Wayne Ralph, SierraPine’s electrical supervisor, “We’re good at using raw materials wisely so there’s very little waste.” Although SierraPine had participated in capital energy-saving projects, company personnel were skeptical about finding much energy waste in the operations and maintenance of plant equipment.
The Solution
That was before SierraPine participated in Energy Trust of Oregon’s Strategic Energy Management initiative, which shows companies how behavioral changes and operations and maintenance improvements can deliver significant and persistent savings. “Strategic Energy Management helped us set aside time to give energy efficiency more attention,” said Ralph. “Doing that paid off by reducing our annual energy costs by $588,700.”
SierraPine’s employees worked closely with industrial energy experts from Energy Trust for 11 months, receiving training and tools and developing long-term skills. Together they walked through all areas of the facility to examine equipment, review operating schedules and procedures and look for energy-saving opportunities. The resulting detailed list of potential operation and maintenance improvements helped SierraPine prioritize ongoing energy-saving efforts. The company also established an energy team with representatives from throughout the facility who meet regularly to discuss, implement and review energy-efficiency strategies.
As the team’s Energy Champion, Ralph coordinated and monitored the team’s efforts.
The Results
Strategic Energy Management helped SierraPine uncover significant energy savings by improving operation of its two 6,000-horsepower refiners. The large refiner plates are at the heart of the company’s production, churning and grinding wood chips for the manufacturing process and requiring replacement about every 10 days. As a result of SEM, the company switched to a new plate design and also increased the plates’ water injection rate, cutting annual energy costs by an estimated $400,000 with no impact on product quality.
The company found additional savings by shutting down an underused 350-horsepower hog system, adjusting equipment schedules to minimize idle operation and refining its fiber quality testing so it could serve as an indicator of energy use.
The company proudly displays its progress on a board in the plant’s lunchroom, where employees can see how their efforts have reduced plant energy use by a whopping 12 percent.
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