Decarbonization Hits Close to Home for Johnson Controls

Johnson Controls’ most recent decarbonization project has gone right to the heart of its 2040 net-zero commitment – working with its own Norman, Oklahoma, manufacturing facility on a chilled water plant and compressed air system upgrade that is projected to nearly halve its greenhouse gas emissions.

The timing could not be better for such an endeavor. Buildings account for roughly 40% of global emissions, finds the World Economic Forum, creating a greater need for more efficient HVAC systems and connected technology to track energy use. Production plant energy efficiency is one the most significant opportunities for industry to make a positive difference. With the net-zero target dates growing closer, it has become vital for industrial buildings and facilities to put measures in place.
“For decades now, scientists have been ringing the alarm bells and saying, ‘Hey, industrial activities, modern life is getting a whole lot of greenhouse gases.’ Johnson Controls is right in the middle of all of this,” said company Vice President, Chief Sustainability Officer and External Relations Officer Kathleen McGinty. 

“We’re on the positive side, bringing forward incredibly compelling solutions so we can change that climate challenge into a real opportunity,” she added. “Johnson Controls is excited to provide proof positive that, when it comes to buildings, if you don’t decarbonize, you’re leaving cash on the table and hurting your bottom line.”

Executive Director for Sustainable Infrastructure Harshvardhan Barve told Chiller & Cooling Best Practices Magazine that Johnson Controls, known as a worldwide pioneer in smart, healthy and sustainable buildings, took on the 900,000-square-foot flagship facility as a way to walk the walk. The project will serve as a model for other groups looking at building modernizations.

Harshvardhan Barve, Executive Director for Sustainable Infrastructure at Johnson Controls.

Net-Zero by 2040 in Scope One and Scope Two Emissions

The Norman plant, which Johnson Controls uses for research, manufacturing and testing of its HVAC rooftop units, employs more than 1,200 people over three shifts, five to seven days per week. In 2023, it produced over 80,000 packaged rooftop units, ranging from 3 ton to 150 ton, under the Johnson Controls, York, Luxaire and Coleman brands. Its legacy central utility plant (CUP), built in the 1960s, included two YT constant speed chillers each rated for 600 tons, to support process and comfort cooling of the factory and administrative spaces. In 2005, Johnson Controls added two YK variable speed chiller units, upping its capacity to 2,400 tons when the campus was expanded. The facility’s CUP water usage profile dedicates 75% of its water supply to comfort cooling, and 25% to water-cooled air compressors.

“Fast-forward to 2017, 2018, the macroeconomic conditions are changing and decarbonization sustainability – specifically Scope One and Scope Two emissions – start gaining a lot more prominence,” Barve said. “Johnson Controls senior leadership made an audacious goal to be net-zero by 2040 in our Scope One and Scope Two emissions, and with that, we started finding out which of our factories are the biggest contributors to our emissions. Norman, Oklahoma, was in the top three in the country.”

The company outlined 15 to 20 Scope One and Scope Two projects, which evolved into a focus on upgrading 10 or 11 of them. At the top were changes to the heating and cooling plant that would deliver the most significant reductions. The company immediately got the backing of its senior leadership.

Johnson Controls Sustainable Infrastructure team developed the design and construction plan, sharing it with the Production and Operations teams. “We asked, what can we change, where can we change and how can we change without impacting operations?” Barve said.

As work was performed on the upgrade, Johnson Controls’ 80,000-unit production target for 2023 was met with no production downtime, despite overhauls to the entire central utility plant, the compressed air system and the heating plant, thanks to a significant team effort.

Two YMC2 and 2YKs chillers provide the needed cooling for both comfort and process.

Chiller, AHU and Cooling Tower Upgrades Drive Savings

The chiller plant supplies chilled water to the air handling units, which in turn provide heating and cooling. Barve and his team needed to understand the air-side distribution and how the flow went through the 900,000-square-foot space, powered by 30 air handling units, each of which has 15, 20 or 25-horsepower (hp) supply fans, plus a constant volume two-pipe system. As two-pipe systems have design limitations, the company upgraded to a four-pipe system.

“We upgraded the existing constant volume two-pipe air handling units with new York Solution™, variable air volume, four-pipe units. That gave us the ability to control and vary the flows on the air side, and also the ability to provide outside air economizing capabilities on all units. That was one of the key upgrades,” Barve said.

By making that adjustment, the building could more effectively vary the air volumes as the load in the building fluctuated, supplying conditioned air when it’s needed and reducing the final load. A digital twin design, once modeled, showed it could keep its 2,400 ton installed capacity moving forward even with its future expansion requirements.

The 1960s YT Millennium machines were replaced with two YMC2 600 ton units installed in their place. The YMC2 machines are centrifugal, magnetic-bearing chillers. Barve’s team opted to keep the two YK units it had installed a decade earlier. The upgraded Metasys™ building automation system will control all the central plant’s assets, including chillers, pumps, cooling towers and the new air handling units.

The company plans to perform an outside air reset on the air handling units and a condenser water reset on the cooling towers, and could optimize future flows. That flexibility gives it an effective way to operate one or more chillers without having to fire up all of the machines.

On the air side, all units were upgraded with economizer functionality, allowing for free cooling capabilities. This was crucial, as 75% of the output goes to comfort cooling, which made a significant difference in a large building and with 1,200 employees.

The balance of the cooling is dedicated to the factory’s water-cooled compressed air system. The Norman plant uses compressed air for multiple pneumatic tooling applications. Having a reliable cooling water supply to the air compressors’ aftercoolers is critical to maintaining a stable compressed air supply at adequate pressures and temperatures.

“With the upgrades, the condenser piping was modified to facilitate the use of free cooling for the compressed air system, reducing the need to use mechanical cooling from the chilled water plant at all times,” Barve noted. 
“Leveraging the Metasys™ controls system, we can control the tower fans to make colder condenser water to satisfy process load requirements,” Barve added. “Now, the new air compressors don't require as cold a water temperature to stay operational, so the free cooled condenser water can actually keep the air compressors cooler.”

Johnson Controls was glad to have its internal teams available for commissioning and factory testing of the upgraded systems. The company retained local partners for the systems’ electrical and mechanical work.

The pumping system distributes chilled water at the Norman plant.

Monitoring Progress at the Norman Plant

Johnson Controls will monitor the performance of the central utility plant with its Metasys™ and OpenBlue platforms (see the sidebar for more on OpenBlue), which work in tandem to provide emissions reporting. Part of that will be monitoring the progress of its water conservation efforts, as the company is targeting a savings of 3.5 million gallons of water annually. This reduction will be achieved by replacing water-cooled ice machines with air-cooled ice machines and upgrading fixtures with low flow devices. 

The team at the Oklahoma facility closely monitored this project to meet an important goal: completing the upgrade with minimal disruption to operations. Barve cited overall coordination, setting realistic and clear expectations and the engineering design team of Alfonso Bortone, Craig Mays, James Jozefiny, David Evers and Jonathan Whitesides for its success.

One key element that allowed the project to thrive was the use of process fluids through a sophisticated piping plan.

“There were two different mechanical rooms that we combined into one, so we saved some space for future expansion of the factory, which is valuable. But, as we were doing that, we had to change all the piping, and if we had run the piping inside the building, it would have created a lot of disturbance for the factory operations. Instead, we laid out the piping on the roof, and dropped down where needed.” 

The CUP upgrade design used a glycol mix, specifically on the secondary side, to make the piping on the roof work: “That's the idea here, the way we were looking at it. By using a glycol mix, we can prevent freezing. In Oklahoma, it can go into negative temperatures and still work effectively,” Barve said.

Positive Results to Date

Johnson Controls touts a number of metrics that resulted from its upgrade. Its greenhouse gas emissions could drop by 43% and its energy consumption by 26%. That equates to about $960,000 in annual energy and operating savings at this facility alone. Of that 43%, Barve pointed out, 10 to 15% is a direct result of the new central plant infrastructure.

Using its OpenBlue platform, Johnson Controls was able to begin by understanding the baseline. It learned the essential needs and constraints, as well as the budget, timeline, reduction requirement and carbon footprint goals. In this case study, that knowledge and expertise was there internally.

Johnson Controls is practicing exactly what it provides to customers: energy efficiency, decarbonization, energy transition and renewable energy via a modernized package. As Barve added, it makes for a unique showcase: “The sustainable infrastructure team can come in and deliver, design, build, own, operate, finance and maintain solutions, and that is one of the ways we have done this particular project in an efficient way.”

All images courtesy of Johnson Controls.

About Johnson Controls

Building on a history of nearly 140 years of innovation, Johnson Controls delivers the blueprint of the future for industries such as healthcare, schools, data centers, airports, stadiums, manufacturing and beyond through OpenBlue, its comprehensive digital offering. With a global team of 100,000 employees in more than 150 countries, it offers the world’s largest portfolio of building technology and software, as well as service solutions from some of the most trusted names in the industry. For more information, visit https://www.johnsoncontrols.com. 

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