Hanover Park Chiller Plant Expansion

Jabil is a contract manufacturer delivering $20B of products every year. Energy consumption is often overlooked when energy spend is only a fraction of a company’s primary revenue stream. However, this savvy manufacturer realized that by reducing energy spend the cost of their products could be lowered making them more competitive in the marketplace and environmentally responsible at the same time. With cooling energy comprising nearly a third of manufacturing energy consumption, the Hanover Park facility rightly targeted their cooling plant for energy improvements.

Using the latest chiller technology from Johnson Controls Inc., a magnetic levitation bearing chiller was selected for the project. Combined with a close approach cooling tower, the new design reduced cooling energy by an impressive 76%. A major key to the innovation was harnessing the local climate and using the cooling tower to provide direct cooling for over six months of the year. The specially selected chiller takes full advantage of lower condenser water temperature and can deliver the 55F water even with 47F condenser temperatures. Below 47F the cooling tower delivers 100% of the cooling load with zero chiller energy.

Careful management of the equipment selection and control strategy is essential. Mr. Bererton developed the control strategy and supverived the implementation of the control logic to ensure the design intent was delivered to yield the maximum benefit and remain robust and reliable. Monitoring the performance of each component of the system ensures design efficiency is achieved and facilitates pro-active maintenance to catch issues before they impact production.