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As one of Canada’s leading retailers, with 197 stores across the country and 20 in British Columbia, Sears Canada had carried out lighting upgrades in all of their B.C. stores and were looking for additional ways to improve their operational and energy efficiency. The company’s Facilities and Operations group had long believed that the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in their stores were oversized and that there was good potential to optimize airflow.
Sears worked with Direct Energy and BC Hydro to install variable frequency drives (VFD) on HVAC fan motors in nine B.C. stores. The result was the largest energy-saving retrofit in the retail sector in 2007. Where the fans used to run at 100 per cent speed all the time, they now run at 80 per cent speed when stores are open, 60 per cent during cleaning hours and are inactive when stories are unoccupied. In addition to substantial electricity savings, the project will extend the useful life of the fan motors. |
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Taseko Mines owns and operates the Gibraltar Mine, located near Williams Lake. As part of a $130 million mill capacity expansion, Taseko invested significant capital to modernize the flotation cells used to concentrate copper and molybdenum minerals, replacing older Denver flotation cells with state-of-the-art Outotec flotation tanks.
Along with the flotation upgrade project, Taseko also replaced the mill’s blower system, complete with automatic sequencing and point-of-use mass flow control. Together, these upgrades have doubled system capacity and will save nearly 38.5 gigawatt hours per year, compared with the alternative of doubling the size of the existing flotation system.
The energy savings, significant as they are, are only part of the benefit. The flotation upgrade project will also boost productivity, reduce maintenance costs and improve copper and molybdenum recovery rates. |
