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Belfast International Airport (BIA)

Energy Efficiency Solution: Variable Speed Drives


Belfast International Airport (BIA)

Problem
BIA located in County Antrim is the main airport serving Northern Ireland. Catering for 5.5 million passengers every year and with customers demanding ever increasing levels of comfort it is critical that the air temperatures and air changes are monitored and controlled. With increasing energy costs and the business need to reduce carbon emissions it was necessary to find a solution that would reduce costs and improve efficiency. The existing system was uncontrolled, resulting in 316KW of fans running continuously at full speed.
Solution
SLA Building Controls Ltd supplied, installed and commissioned Variable Speed Drives on the 'Air Handling Units'. Sensors were installed to monitor CO2 levels within each area and closely control the air speed and air changes within the building by controlling the speed of the motors.
Variable Speed Benefits
The new drive system gives control of each individual area of the Airport. It is interfaced to a Building Management System, which controls the speed of the fans by giving the variable speed drive a 0-10 volt signal. The relationship between fan speed and power consumption means that a reduction in fan speed of 15% will realise energy consumption savings of 38%.
"We have reduced our electricity consumption enormously through the installation of variable speed drives on our air handling units" says airport Technical Supervisor Colin Sloan. "This is a major cost saving and we are now investigating other possibilities among the airport's many systems".
Savings
Using Variable Speed Drives BIA have saved:
  • Previous Consumption: 2.55 million kWh
  • New Consumption: 0.73 million kWh
  • Consumption reduced by 70%
  • Investment: £91,500
  • Energia Grant: £29,500 (32%)
  • Payback: 0.5 years

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