Overview

230 million – what does this figure represent?

Believe it or not, 230 million is how much UMC is estimated to have saved in electricity bills through our internal energy saving competition this year!

The annual energy saving competition encourages employees to think outside the box and to propose energy efficient solutions that can reduce electricity consumption in our offices and public areas. The progress of energy-saving measures is monitored and shared monthly across fabs, and the actual impact is measured every quarter.  This year, we expanded the energy saving committee to drive greater reductions. Even with full loading and expansion of production lines, 2021 electricity saving is estimated to be 2.2%, exceeding the original target of 2%.

Maximizing production efficiency while minimizing environmental impact is the guiding principle behind UMC’s operation model. Through data monitoring tools, green manufacturing, and optimization of existing equipment, we are able to lower energy consumption, balancing both production and environmental concerns.  

1. Introducing Industry 4.0:

To move beyond what is possible with traditional energy efficiency methods, UMC is introducing Industry 4.0 technologies and smart energy efficient facilities in our fabs. Through analysis of big data collected by sensors, we built models of equipment operation and established a power management platform. The platform enables operators to take advantage of data visualization and to gain a real-time, complete picture of energy usage across all the equipment in a fab. This is helpful for analyzing the differences in power consumption and find ways to improve energy efficiency of the facility.  

i-Chiller, the smart chilled water system, is a good example.

In a fab, the chilled water system is the second most energy intensive facility after the production equipment. A chilled water system is composed of a chiller and other ancillary equipment such as chilled water pump, cooling water pump, cooling tower, and heat exchanger. The energy consumption of each component is correlated with changes in temperature, as well as many other external factors.

As there are more than 30 factors that could affect the i-Chiller’s energy consumption, it is difficult to find the “optimal energy efficiency” based on an engineer’s experience or traditional theoretical models. Therefore, UMC employs IoT in Fab 12A P3/4, setting up a large number of sensors and establishing a big data database. Through deviation analysis and algorithms, as well as the repeated tests for the correlation and weighting between parameters, we were able to overcome limitations and made it so every chiller will adjust to the optimal status based on external climate or on-site loading conditions. Under the same enthalpy value, the operation efficiency of the i-Chiller is increased by 3.3% compared with the traditional chiller, reducing electricity consumption by as much as 12.232 GWh and saving up to NT$29.65 million/year.

Using big data, we can also identify performance deviations through Coefficient of Performance (COP) analysis. This helps us determine which equipment is due for maintenance or replacement. In addition, Prognostic and Health Management (PHM) was also introduced to enable the visualization of Health Index (HI) and predict the Remaining Useful Life (RUL) for the equipment, preventing unexpected equipment failure, greatly improving the stability of the system and reducing the workload of employees while avoiding unnecessary losses.

2. Optimizing fab and equipment efficiency:

In collaboration with equipment manufacturers and component suppliers, UMC has set up wireless sensors in order to analyze the various operating modes of equipment and adjusting settings to reduce power consumption. We are also gradually retiring energy intensive auxiliary equipment with more energy efficient components.

In 2007, UMC introduced the concept of green building for its fabs, which has been implemented for the new facilities at Phase III (P3) and Phase IV (P4) of Fab 12A in the Southern Taiwan Science Park. The building design incorporated various energy saving and environmental protection elements. The fab was awarded the Taiwan’s Green Building Gold Label in 2011 as well as the LEED gold certification in 2012.

In 2012, Fab 12A and Fab 8A were both awarded the Green Factory Label by the Industrial Development Bureau. Fab 8A, which has been in operation in the Hsinchu Science Park for over 17 years, was the first 8-inch fab in Taiwan to receive this honor. In 2013, UMC achieved Clean Production Evaluation System certification from the Industrial Development Bureau for all its Taiwan fabs, another major achievement.

For its offices, UMC fully adopts VAV and winter free cooling enthalpy control mode for its air-conditioning system. Moreover, heat pumps were used to heat Hot DI required for the production process, replacing the use of some gas boilers, which greatly reduces the annual gas consumption of the boiler system.

P3/P4 of Fab 12A leads the industry in adopting LED lamps for office and outdoor lighting, which significantly reduces the power consumption without sacrificing lighting standards. LED lights were also installed in the clean room to reduce the power consumption for lighting in the fab without affecting production.

2021 Power Saving Key Project

Green factory: Includes ecology, site greening, and water conservation design, and adopts circular green belt design to avoid hindering of biological migration; set up two ecological detention ponds within the site for biological habitat, flood control, and rainwater recovery and regulation; artificial garden soil with water retention design, grass slope with natural water permeable design adopted for the unexcavated area; the AC pavement with poor water permeability is replaced by interlocking brick pavement with better water permeability.

UMC promotes comprehensive energy-saving measures in our equipment, processes, systems, and management. We seek innovative solutions, such as Industry 4.0, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, and review energy consumption data on a rolling basis to explore energy efficiency potential. Through optimization of control and process systems, we are able to harness IoT for smart energy saving solutions, making UMC an industry pioneer in promoting smart operation management.

Our work is not finished. Phase III of UMC’s resource conservation plan ended in 2020, which was followed by Phase IV, the Green 2025 project. Under Green 2025, we are aiming to lower electricity and water consumption by 15%, reduce waste by 25%, and cut fluorine-containing greenhouse gas emissions by 65% by 2025.

These goals echo UMC’s sustainability vision and also facilitates concrete actions. Yes, they are challenging goals. But if energy saving measures in our daily work can result in more than NT$200 million in savings, even “mission impossible” can be possible. Amid the global climate crisis, we must do the “impossible” by making environmental protection part of our DNA and contribute to the sustainable development of our planet.

UMC Energy Saving Projects