Legrand (China) – Jiamu Lu – 2015

Goals

Legrand enlisted EDF Climate Corps fellow Jiamu Lu to work in the factory of its subsidiary, Rocom Electric Company, in Dongguan, China. The factory has a staff of 1,800, and covers around 17,000 square meters. Rocom’s energy efficiency plan for 2015 was to reduce its total electricity consumption by three percent. Working together with the Rocom team, Lu’s task was to identify and analyze energy-efficiency projects for the factory and provide recommendations regarding implementation.

Solutions

The Injection Department was one place Jiamu identified as having promising opportunities. The Injection Department accounts for 25 percent of the company’s total electricity usage. In addition, the working temperature of the Injection Department is higher than that of the other departments due to its heating processes. Lu studied several proposals, researched new technologies and organized a visit to another factory to learn more. Lu then proposed that Legrand modify the injection machine’s heater along with two other recommendations that could potentially reduce the energy consumption of Injection Department. In addition, Lu also proposed installing occupancy sensors for lighting in certain areas and implementing a rainwater recycling technology in the factory.

Potential Impact

When fully implemented, these projects could result in 225,000 kilowatt hours of annual electricity savings, a net present value of more than $200,000 and 118 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions reductions annually.