The challenge
A leading medical device company retained Veolia’s energy consulting group to improve energy reliability and assess on-site power generation options for its manufacturing facility in Juana Díaz, Puerto Rico. Veolia mapped and quantified the Owner’s energy needs, evaluated alternative technologies for implementation, and carefully crafted recommendations for energy strategies that best met the Owner’s operational and financial goals.
The project challenges are:
- This manufacturer’s facility was served by unreliable and expensive energy resources.
- The Owner ran the risk of unplanned interruptions that could result in damage to expensive process equipment or lost revenue from production downtime.
- High power costs coupled with energy-intensive operations were impacting plant profitability and the manufacturer’s competitive position.
Veolia’s solution
Hands-on evaluation:
- Veolia helped the customer to identify their key energy needs and to quantify regulatory and environmental concerns, reliability, and operational impacts for several potential on-site power solutions.
Innovative strategy:
- Following data collection, site assessments, and operational interviews, Veolia developed a total energy requirements model. The Team then analyzed the technical and financial performance of various technologies, including gas turbines, reciprocating engines, fuel cells, solar power, and wind turbines.
- Veolia established a multiple criteria analysis to rank alternative technologies based on project capital cost, generation capacity, financial performance, and system reliability. Local constraints related to fuel availability prompted a complex assessment of regional market conditions and fuel price sensitivity forecasts. A matrix of potential solutions was developed with project descriptions, electrical interconnection drawings, heat and mass balances, general arrangements, representative project schedules, cost estimates, and cash flow analysis for each alternative.
Results
Based on the analysis described above, Veolia proposed a solution through its energy consulting business of liquified natural gas-fired reciprocating engines integrated with hot water absorption chillers as the best strategy for improving power reliability at the facility while lowering plant operating costs. This solution met the site’s growing energy requirements and mitigated risk by utilizing established primary energy supply infrastructure.
The liquified natural gas (LNG) market in Puerto Rico is quickly evolving and many manufacturers are realizing the benefit of increased access to LNG.