NYSERDA Press Releases

NYSERDA Provides More Than $550,000 in Cash Incentives to Lafarge Cement
Funding Makes Lafarge More Responsive to Potential Electricity Shortages

Albany, NY – One of the largest cement plants in the world, the Lafarge Building Material plant in Ravena, NY, recently implemented several energy-saving measures to improve efficiency and reduce costs. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) provided more than $550,000 to Lafarge Building Materials, Inc. for the upgrades through its New York Energy $mart^SM Peak Load Reduction program. The improvements will both enable the plant to reduce energy demand when called upon by the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) during periods of high electricity demand and also achieve permanent demand reductions.

"Lafarge's involvement in this program is valuable because it not only improves the State's grid reliability, but it also improves their bottom line through reduced operational costs. By participating in the Peak Load Reduction program, Lafarge Building Materials is not only reducing energy use, but avoiding high energy prices during peak demand times," said NYSERDA President William M. Flynn.

The Lafarge cement plant requires a large amount of electricity to operate two raw mills, four cement mills, two 580-foot long cement kilns, and dozens of industrial-size fans. Lafarge implemented four peak load reduction measures that reduce the cement plant's electrical load by nearly 2.5 megawatts, or enough electricity to power more than 2,000 homes. Novus Engineering of Delmar, NY provided the technical services for this project on behalf of NYSERDA.

Lafarge received more than $350,000 in incentive payments from NYSERDA for implementing the following measures:

• Raw Mill Conversion – The rotating mills that crush raw material originally used 4" diameter steel balls, but by converting the balls to 19" long steel rods, Lafarge achieved a permanent demand savings of more than 1,300 kW.

• Kiln Drive Conversion – The two giant kilns were originally rotated with a pair of 500 horsepower, DC motors with direct drives and were replaced with a series of smaller AC motors that power hydraulic (fluid) drives and pumps. These upgrades allowed Lafarge to turn the motors on and off as needed and saved 540 kW.

• Cooler Fans – Cooling is a necessary function of the cement-making process. The original cooler exhausts used a 900 horsepower, single-speed fan, which were replaced with more efficient coolers that use much smaller, two-speed fans. This resulted in a 620 kW reduction.

NYSERDA provided Lafarge with an additional incentive payment of more than $205,000 to install a sophisticated power monitoring system that displays and records electric loads at 65 locations throughout the plant. With the information from this system, Lafarge can effectively manage the load reduction, while maintaining essential operations. With only one-hour notice, Lafarge can reduce the plant's electricity demand by 22,000 kW. The plant implements the load reduction measures in response to requests from the New York Independent System Operator at times of electric system capacity shortfall. The reductions typically last for a period of four to five hours.

Funding for this project came from NYSERDA's New York Energy $mart^SM program, which is designed to lower electricity costs by encouraging energy efficiency as the State's electric utilities move to competition. The programs are available to all electric distribution customers (residential, commercial, institutional, and industrial) of Central Hudson, Con Edison, NYSEG, Niagara Mohawk, Orange and Rockland, and Rochester Gas and Electric. All New York Energy $mart^SM programs are funded by a System Benefits Charge (SBC) paid by electric distribution customers of participating utilities. NYSERDA, a public benefit corporation established by law in 1975, administers SBC funds and programs under an agreement with the Public Service Commission. Additional information about these programs can be obtained at www.nyserda.org or 1-866-NYSERDA.

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