Legrand (China)
At a Glance
Industry
Industrial Goods and Manufacturing
Project Types
Clean and Renewable Energy, Industrial Energy Efficiency
Year
2014
Location
Concord, NC
Summary
Prithiviraj Chellamuthu focused on new energy-saving technology and the careful analysis and mitigation of peak energy demand.
Goals
Prithiviraj Chellamuthu assisted the sustainability team at Legrand North America (LNA) to identify energy saving opportunities at Legrand’s facilities located in West Hartford, CT; Concord, NC; Fort Mill, SC; and Tijuana, Mexico.
Solutions
While Legrand had already initiated energy saving opportunities through the installation of submeters, energy efficient lamp retrofits, occupancy sensors and controlled temperature regulations, Chellamuthu identified further opportunities for reducing energy usage. By analyzing the submeter data, Chellamuthu found ways to reduce baseload usage during weekday and weekends with an estimated annual energy cost saving opportunity of $136,000 for the four sites combined. He also identified the source of the top energy users for each facility and created several methods to enable on-site energy managers to minimize energy consumption and reduce peak demand. Additional savings could be realized through the application of new technologies Chellamuthu recommended.
Potential Impact
Overall his summer work could help LNA save over $200,000 annually corresponding to 1.5 million kilowatt hours in energy usage reduction and over 1,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Energy saving ideas garnered from these four sites could be shared with the 22 other LNA sites. This would help enable Legrand to accomplish its energy reduction goals as part of the Department of Energy’s Better Building Better Plant Challenge.