Beginning service in 1999, the headquarters of Delta Electronics, Inc. in Taiwan is a 9-storey office building with three underground floors. It was the first office building in Neihu Science Park using the solar PV system (5 KW). Renovating the office building into a green building after 15 years of operation was like "altering clothes when wearing them", because it was necessary to match the original building design and use and maintain its routine operations. Nevertheless, the building finally passed the EEWH-Diamond certification, the highest level of green building certification in Taiwan. This is a new milestone for Delta green buildings and the first time for Delta to remodel an existing building into a green building. From diagnosis, planning, design and programming, to the application for certification, the Delta team did it all on its own.
Detailed solution description
Duration of Renovation: 7 months in 2013. Implementation: The Energy Management Service Department of Delta began with a building diagnosis to find energy saving opportunities in Delta Headquarters. Without considering datacenter power consumption, the energy saving diagnosis team found the following opportunities after diagnosis and evaluation: (1) HVAC, which consumes about 39.3% of the building's energy; and (2) lighting which consumes about 18.5%. After data assessment, the team initiated the renovation project and immediately formed a project team for interdepartmental cooperation with several functional departments and business units.
Capturing power consumption trends with an energy management system
The project team adopted the iPEMSTM intelligent monitoring and management system of the Display Solutions Business Unit together terminal devices including meters, controller, and sensors to capture the energy information of the entire Delta HQ building on one single screen, particularly major power consumption items: HVAC, lighting, outlet, elevator, etc. The iPEMSTM not only locates energy consumption sources but also enables managers to keep track of energy-saving effectiveness and to control energy consumption.
Saving 25% energy: VFD for HVAC
Based on the project team's assessment, the old HVAC in the Delta HQ building was operated at fixed frequency, and there is space for saving energy. Without replacing any HVAC hardware, the project team successfully enhances the electricity efficiency rate (EER) of the HVAC of the Delta HQ building with Delta's HVAC energy products and solutions, including the PLC controller, inverter, HMI, and hub and the HVAC intelligent control logic. At full-load operation, the energy consumption of HVAC reduced up to 25%.
Saving 74% energy: Optimal lighting for building
Lighting system improvement included: (1) replacing all T8 fluorescent lamps with Delta's LED lamps in the office area; (2) measuring luminance with luminance meters to provide optimal lighting levels in accordance with the CNS luminance standard; (3) infrared occupancy sensing switches for lamps in public corridors with PLC timers; (4) time management for the lighting system to shut down unnecessary lighting sources after work; and (5) Delta outdoor LED lamps for street lamps. With such the power consumption of the lighting system of the Delta HQ building reduced up to 74%.
Saving 30% energy: Energy regeneration device for elevators
Elevators in the building were driven by inductor motors with traditional brake resistors to transform the regeneration energy into heat energy to prevent system overload when the motor is non-functioning (free fall of the elevator or counter weight). This heat energy is ventilated in the elevator facilities. By replacing traditional brake resistors with Delta's elevator energy feedback unit, both heat generated by elevators and the power consumption of the ventilation system were reduced. As a result, the power consumption of the elevator system reduced by about 30%.
Performance, impact and results
About 97% of buildings in Taiwan are existing buildings. A large amount of heat energy has been wasted as buildings in earlier times were not designed for sustainable development and energy saving. In addition, there is much space for energy saving improvement in terms of heat insulation, A/C ventilation, lighting, and energy management. With carbon reduction efficiency up to 51.75%, Delta Headquarters is so far the most energy efficient office building and the first medium level (6-15 stories) office building ever to pass Diamond certification in Taiwan. Take this project as an example; all investments will be covered in three years. With this case of success, it is expected that more existing buildings in Taiwan can be renovated into green buildings.
