Dalkia U.S. Chiller Services’ core belief is that if a chiller is operating efficiently, it is operating reliably. We have found that retro-commissioning delivers the largest energy savings available to chilled water plants. Dalkia U.S. Chiller Services has performed retro-commissioning services throughout the world and have found efficiency improvements from 15% to 60%. We have never performed retro-commissioning services on a centrifugal chiller where we did not save energy and increase reliability!
Chillers in the field rarely, if ever, operate according to Factory Energy Design.
From 2003 to 2012, Dalkia U.S. Chiller Services gathered and analyzed data from operating chillers and plants in the region; from the newly constructed and commissioned plants to 5 year old plants, as well as chillers up to 5 years old, all were electric driven Centrifugal Plants. What we determined was the operating range of these chillers before chiller retro-commissioning and corrective service procedures were performed was between 0.98 to 1.8 Kw per ton. After we performed retro-commissioning services, the Kw per ton performance ranges were between 0.513 to 0.759 Kw per ton.
We’re not alone in our findings.
A survey report by the Dalkia U.S. Department of Energy found more than 120,000 chillers in the Dalkia U.S. are expending more than 30% in additional energy through operational inefficiencies.
A survey report by San Diego State University Energy Engineering Institute results on 31 chiller plant sites across the Dalkia U.S. found: