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Olex is Australia’s largest manufacturer of electrical cables for the energy and infrastructure sectors.

Location:

207 Sunshine Rd, Tottenham, VIC, 3012

Water Use:

The company’s plant in Tottenham uses a water recirculation system to cool water from the various processes involved in cable insulating and sheathing. The system involves two cooling towers, which use two fans each. The fans were run at 100% capacity, regardless of the water temperature, consuming nearly 15 million litres of drinking water per year and a great deal of energy.

Implementation:

Significant opportunities were identified when the operation and maintenance of the cooling system was analysed from a water and energy efficiency perspective. Olex decided to address this inefficiency by using variable speed drives on the cooling towers. Installation of variable speed drives allowed the cooling tower fans to operate at their optimal speed, depending on the weather conditions and the degree of cooling required at any given time!

Results:

Olex saved 4.8 million litres of drinking water per year by reducing water losses through cooling tower drift. Additionally, there has been a significant reduction in energy consumption of 78.1 megawatt hours per year and greenhouse gas savings of 95.2 tonnes per year.

Total Project Cost:

$67,144