Ford, Geelong Manufacturing Plant - Lighting

Background

Ford Australia's Stamping Plant, located in Geelong, manufactures car panels and various other subassembly parts.

In 1997, Ford Australia became the first Australian automotive manufacturer, and one of the first within Ford globally, to be recommended for ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems certification. In 2007, Ford recognised the opportunity to improve their ageing lighting system, which was inefficient and costly to operate.

The existing 400 W metal halide lamps could be retrofitted with 350 W pulse-start metal halide lamps, reducing energy consumption by 19%.

Objectives

Review and upgrade the current system.

Actions

Step 1: Origin Energy were appointed to assess and document the savings that Ford estimated to achieve from the conversion of 1100 existing 400 W metal halide lamps, which ran on constant wattage control gear.

Step 2: The lamps were changed to 350 W pulse-start metal halide lamps, operating on  reactor/ignitor control gear, which could be also retrofitted into the same luminaire.

Pulse-start metal halide lamps provide better performance compared to standard metal halide lamps. The specific benefits are higher efficacy, improved lumen maintenance and longer life. One key to better lamp performance is heat management. In standard arc tubes, uneven heating prevented optimum arc enhancement. Pulse-start metal halide lamps have a higher operating temperature, which draw more halides into the stream, resulting in more light being generated.

Lumen output does not decay as rapidly over life with pulse-start metal halide lamps, as opposed to standard metal halide lamps. Mean lumens are improved dramatically, up to 50% higher in some wattages.

The reduction in energy consumption is based on the initial load of each luminaire being 400 W lamp and 65 W constant wattage control gear losses being replaced with a 350 W lamp and 28 W reactor/ignitor control gear losses.

Results

The cost of retrofitting the existing lighting system was $378,000, with expected energy savings of  $349,000 annually. Based on energy cost savings alone, this resulted in a project payback of just over one year.

The key outcomes were:

• retained minimum lighting levels based on AS.1680 requirements
• reduced electricity consumption by 630,630 kWh p.a
• reduced electricity demand by 99 kW
• reduced greenhouse gas pollution by 828 tonnes of carbon.