LEED certification for factories

I agree with you Mike. But the thing is that in some projects were the process energy consumption represents the 90%, its very difficult to achive a 12% reduction.
And the problem is that for that specif manufacturing process there is not yet a better technology to reduce energy consumption.

Rosamaria,
We worked with a client to certify a manufacturing plant for construction materials that achieved LEED Gold under NC. Since the energy used in the manufacturing process has been required to be included in the overall building energy performance, this is not always easy. The 3 biggest challenges are:

1. Achieving energy reductions in the manufacturing process. This has been difficult, since as you mentioned process loads are often 90% of the building energy use.

2. Defining a reasonable baseline for the process energy in the energy model. ASHRAE 90.1 doesn't define a "code minimum" for a manufacturing process - every process is unique. There are some related comments to this point in the EAp2 forum as Tristan mentioned. This becomes the key challenge - it is up to the design team to define a reasonable baseline case for the process energy that the LEED reviewer will accept. It may come from comparing the manufacturing equipment in this plant to other plants the company owns or comparing to "industry standard" practices. You may also need to analyze all the equipment in the production process and show how individual pieces of equipment may be more efficient than "typical" baseline equipment - does it use premium efficiency motors? Variable frequency drives? heat recovery? Is there a patented part of the process that produces more product per unit of energy?

3. Showing you meet ASHRAE 62.1 ventilation requirements, since that standard doesn't specifically address manufacturing areas. You may end up showing that other ventilation requirements, say for fire protection, exceed the ASHRAE 62.1 ventilation rates.
Hope that helps.

David,
Thank you very much for your comment. I found it very useful.
In relation to the challenge you stated in point 2, we are finding it very hard to define a reasonable baseline for the process energy. It will be very difficult to compare to an "industry standard" since the process is quite specific. The good news is that the company for which we are developing the project has 4 manufacturing plants that have very similar characteristics and monitors the process energy, so we should be able to get the information we need. But these manufacturing plants are in different parts of the world, so the climate temperatures vary much, and thus the conditions of the equipment are very different- resulting in different equipment efficiencies.
I am considering to establish as baseline the more efficient one of these manufacturing plants, but sill we have the problem of the different climatic conditions. Do you have any suggestions about how to establish a baseline with these diversities?
Thank you very much!

I have worked on three and currently working on three more as the commissioning agent. Yes they do incorporate energy ( the vast majority of it ) for process loads. Nwhen performing my design review i always recommend process load elreduction strategies, with associated rough savings calculations. Nsince the advantage of a manufacturing plant is that oprerating costs are important, this usualy gives us good savings on the overall prrformance of the building.
Inalso do have to mention my arguments with some energy modelers, since some GBCI reviewers have told them. On previous projects to exclude the true process loads (only assume the default 25%). To me this is not a true energy use analysis, and if incorporating M&V good luck. I have also performed energy calculations for LEED with light manufacturing, but again the key is to incorporate energy efficiency measurws in the process load. A 10% reduction in energy usage in process loads is not that hard to achieve, and will usually be enough to comply with the LEED requirements. Or of course you could. Ross your fingera and play with the prescriptive 25 % process loads