Construction leaders in Shanghai choose Danfoss turbocor compressor for headquarter energy-saving retrofit

Tuesday, 26 July, 2016

Shanghai Jian Ke Building, located in Shanghai XuHui District, started its energy-saving retrofit project in 2014 and was selected into “2014 Demonstration Projects of Shanghai Public Buildings Energy-saving Retrofit”. Replacing the old lithium bromide chillers, the project adopted the maglev oil-free water-cooled modular chillers with Danfoss Turbocor compressor and achieved about 48.6% (800 thousand kWh less) energy-saving, and 530 thousand RMB energy-cost savings.
Jian Ke Building is the head-quarter of Shanghai Research Institute of Building Sciences Group, collecting various experts in scientific-research, consulting, testing, estimation, designing, and engineering management. 

Shanghai Research Institute of Building Sciences Group has done various famous benchmark projects in Shanghai, such as Pudong International Airport, Shanghai EXPO, Shanghai Center, National Exhibition and Convention Center, Shanghai Disneyland, etc. and it is regarded as the leader of Shanghai construction industry with greatest impact on the construction technology development. By comprehensive consideration of high operation efficiency, retrofit difficulty and Promoting energy saving service industry, Shanghai Research Institute of Building Sciences Group decided to choose below solutions: Oil-free modular chillers with magnetic-bearing + energy management contract.

Shanghai Jian Ke Building was built in 1997 with 27895m2 area and 102m height. There are 24 floors on the ground and 2 underground. The cooling station is located on B2. The old system adopted 2 lithium bromide chillers. According to the energy consumption statics of year 2004, the portion of energy consumption share of air-conditioning system is 38% (Figure 1) for the whole building. And for the whole air-conditioning system, the energy-saving portion of chillers was about 46% (Figure 2). In 2004, July is the peak time for cooling and November has the lowest requirement for cooling/heating load. Therefore, the retrofit of air-conditioning systems was taken as the chief object and until 2014, the COP of the lithium bromide chillers decreased from 1.13 to 0.83, which can’t meet the cooling requirement in summer.

Oil-free chiller with Danfoss Turbocor compressor achieve up to 70% energy savings 
The retrofit solution adopts 4 BSE maglev modular chillers as cooling resource and keeps 1 old lithium bromide chiller as heating resource and supplementary cooling resource. Each BSE chiller is equipped with 1 Turbocor oil-free compressor TT400 and the maximum cooling capacity of each is 150 ton. The compressor can operate between 0-800Hz which enables great part load efficiency and full load efficiency. The 4 chillers were installed paralleled and any one of them stops won’t impact the smooth operation of others. 

From the monitor and test by 3rd part the energy consumption is decreased by 70% from 43% in July 2015 when compared with November 2014. The Total year saving ratio is 48.6%.

Compact size solves the retrofit difficulty
The size of Danfoss Turbocor compressor TT400 - 788mm*618mm*487mm - enables BSE chiller a compact size of 1200mm*890mm*1800mm. The project of air-conditioning retrofit only took 2 months between the cooling season and the heating season. And owe to the small size, the chillers were sent to the cooling station directly by forklift, without destroying the cooling station. Besides, the new chillers saved about 50% area after retrofit.

Energy Management Contract (EMC)

Jian Ke Building retrofit project adopts the new energy-saving service model ---- Energy Management Contract. The total energy saving solution and retrofit project is in the charge of Shanghai Jianke Energy-saving Technology Co.,Ltd.(hereby called “Shanghai Jianke”). After the project is done, Shanghai Jianke will get the investment back year by year according to the portion of the saved cost signed by them and the building owner on the contract.

Shanghai Jian Ke Building is the third energy-saving retrofit project combining oil-free solution and EMC model. Before it, Shanghai Xijiao Hotel and Shanghai Pudong Holiday Inn have both been identified as benchmark in energy-saving retrofit projects in Shanghai using oil-free solutions and EMC model.