Domtar Inc.

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The situation

Domtar is the third largest producer of uncoated freesheet paper in North America. It is also a leading manufacturer of business papers, commercial printing and publication papers, and technical and specialty papers. According to internationally recognized standards, Domtar also manages 22 million acres of forest land in North America, and produces lumber and other wood products. Domtar has 12,000 employees across North America as well as a 50% investment interest in Norampac Inc., the largest Canadian producer of containerboard.

Domtar operates a paper mill on Annacis Island, which was originally built in 1960 and today runs 24/7 and employs 370 staff. The lighting at Domtar's Annacis Island Paper Mill was showing its age. Some areas were over-lit and others were under-lit. Lighting products were outdated and the quality of lighting was not optimal. Additionally, ongoing maintenance costs of the existing system were very high. In the large warehouse, the challenge was to design a lighting system that minimized the number of fixtures for maintenance access while providing the correct light levels. Maintenance and upgrades at this mill needed to be done with minimal shutdown time to avoid impact on operations.

The solution

As a Power Smart Partner, Domtar worked with BC Hydro to find energy efficiency solutions that could be implemented to the Annacis Island mill with minimum disruption to its staff and operations. Domtar engaged the services of Power Smart Alliance member Quantum Lighting to perform an audit of the lighting.

The following recommendations from the audit were implemented:

• installation of energy-efficient metal halide lamps
• redesign of the warehouse lighting using pulse-start metal halide fixtures
• conversion of T12 lamps to T8 lamps
• Exit Light conversion to LED
• changing incandescent to compact fluorescent or halogen infrared lamps.

Domtar is now also experimenting with occupancy sensors in seldom-occupied rooms and may extend their use if they prove to be successful.

Thanks to incentive funding from the Power Smart Partner program, Domtar received financial assistance towards the cost of the lighting upgrades.

Employee engagement

In order to ensure the upgrade ran smoothly, it was necessary to engage the cooperation and understanding of the employees. To do this, Quantum Lighting held Employee Energy Awareness sessions. At these sessions, the facility lighting improvements were explained and employees were educated on how they could contribute to being Power Smart at work and at home.

The benefits

The conversion of lighting systems to more efficient technologies, and the way in which the overall project was implemented, had several benefits:

Reduced energy and operating costs
The lighting project is already exceeding the initial estimated savings expectations and savings are now projected at more than three gigawatt hours, or approximately $150,000, annually. As well as cost savings and energy efficiencies gained, the resulting maintenance savings of newer, more efficient lighting systems were extremely significant.

Increased productivity
The superior quality lighting used in the project has resulted in more accurate colour rendering, allowing employees to spot errors more easily. Also, downtime has been reduced by adding fluorescent backups that come on to close the gap when metal halides are starting up again after being turned off.

Increased awareness
Employees are now more aware of energy costs and opportunities to increase energy savings, both at work and at home.