Creo Inc.

The story

With BC Hydro's help, Creo was able to carry out a major lighting upgrade at their Annacis Island manufacturing plant. Not only are they realizing significant lighting electricity savings, but they've also improved the lighting environment for their employees.

The situation

Burnaby-based Creo Inc. is a global company with key strengths in imaging and software technology. More than 4000 employees work in 30 offices worldwide. Creo is Canada's 18th largest technology company and was named "Company of the Year" by the British Columbia Technology Industries Association. Creo manufactures over 300 products, including professional digital camera backs, scanning systems and workflow management software, at product development and manufacturing centres in the Lower Mainland as well as Herzlia, Israel.

Creo's Annacis Island facility manufactures and tests digital prepress equipment for shipment to printing customers worldwide. The plant comprises a manufacturing/assembly area, offices, meeting rooms, research and development area, receiving area, product environmental testing chambers, shipping area, warehouse, and machine shop. These facilities use a great deal of electricity – heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC) equipment accounts for 42% of total electricity use, and lighting accounts for 31%.

Like manufacturing companies everywhere, Creo is constantly looking for ways to reduce its operating costs and make its operations more efficient. Creo used Power Smart's programs to identify energy efficiency opportunities and improve lighting quality at the Annacis Island manufacturing facility.

The solution

After Creo became a Power Smart Partner in 2002, they conducted an industrial energy audit to investigate where electricity was being used and what could be done to increase efficiency. The review showed that the greatest potential for cost-effective electricity savings lay in upgrading the lighting system.

A team consisting of key Creo personnel, BC Hydro, lighting manufacturer GE Lighting and lighting distributor Guillevin International designed a plant-wide lighting retrofit. The team came up with two options: a less-extensive "better" upgrade that would provide less electricity savings at a lower cost and a more-extensive "best" upgrade that would provide more electricity savings at a higher cost. The team recommended the "best" option, based on a Power Smart Partner incentive, which brought the project's economics in line with current company hurdle rates. Creo accepted the "best" option and the project was carried out in early 2003.

The lighting upgrade included:

• Reducing the number of lamps and removing fixtures where appropriate, consistent with Workers' Compensation Board guidelines
• Converting all T12 fluorescent lamps to T8 lamps with electronic ballasts
• Converting 400-watt metal halide fixtures to lower-wattage metal halide bi-level pulse-start lamps
• Lowering fixtures closer to the assembly floor in order to provide the appropriate light level
• Converting incandescent exit signs to light-emitting diode (LED) exit signs.

The benefits

Reducing operating costs. The lighting retrofit has reduced electricity consumption at the Annacis Island plant by 600,000 kilowatt-hours or $29,000 per year. The savings include a reduction in air conditioning costs as a result of decreased heat output from fixtures, and a reduction in annual relamping material and labour costs due to longer lamp life.

Improved lighting environment. Better-positioned, brighter fixtures mean more appropriate lighting levels for the work being done, resulting in a more comfortable environment for employees.

Reduced environmental impacts. Lower energy consumption results in reduced greenhouse gas emissions and enhanced environmental protection.