Analysis of difficulties in implementing the energy management system of semiconductor factories

Semiconductor manufacturing is a technology-intensive and capital-intensive industry, and it is also a well-known energy consumer. The electricity costs of an advanced wafer factory can account for nearly 30% of the total operating costs. Therefore, building a precise, intelligent and reliable energy management system (EMS) has become an inevitable choice for semiconductor companies to enhance their core competitiveness and achieve sustainable development. However, semiconductor factories have complex processes, numerous equipment, and sensitive environments. The implementation of their energy management systems is far more difficult than that of ordinary factories, and many difficulties are often encountered in practice.

The primary difficulty lies in the breadth, accuracy and real-time nature of data collection. The energy consumption points of the semiconductor factory are spread across the Fab factory service systems (such as ultrapure water, bulk gases, vacuum, chemical supply) and the process equipment itself. These devices come from different suppliers around the world and have a wide variety of communication protocols. If the energy management system cannot obtain these scattered energy consumption data comprehensively, accurately and in real time, all subsequent analysis and optimization will become passive water. Some early projects only monitored the total power consumption of the factory service system, but could not drill down to specific machines or process links, resulting in the inability to implement precise energy-saving measures.

Shanghai Ruikongyuan Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. regards solving data collection problems as the cornerstone of project success when serving semiconductor customers in key areas in the Yangtze River Delta and the north. Based on its long-term experience in cooperation with mainstream automation manufacturers such as Siemens, Honeywell, and Hollysys, the Ruikongyuan team is proficient in handling various industrial protocols such as Modbus, BACnet, and OPC UA. By deploying smart meters, flow meters, sensors and necessary gateway equipment, they built a three-dimensional energy consumption monitoring network covering the plant's main incoming lines to the socket level of key machines, providing a solid data foundation for advanced analysis.

The second difficulty is the depth of integration of system analysis and process. Simple data display and reporting functions can no longer meet the needs of semiconductor factories. The real value lies in discovering abnormal energy consumption through data analysis, locating energy efficiency bottlenecks, and linking them with production process parameters to give optimization suggestions. For example, the unit energy consumption of etching, diffusion and other process equipment is closely related to product mass production rate and yield. When Ruikongyuan deployed an energy management system for a semiconductor packaging and testing company along the coast of East China, it not only monitored energy consumption, but also correlated and analyzed the operating status of some process equipment (such as idle, run, standby) with energy consumption data to help customers identify the "invisible waste" of idle power consumption during non-production periods. By optimizing equipment standby strategies, annual electricity bills can be saved by millions of yuan.

The third difficulty is system stability and security. Semiconductor production is a continuous process, and any system interruption can cause huge losses. As a production auxiliary system, the energy management system must ensure stable operation 7 x 24 hours a day, and its data network must be securely isolated from the production control network to prevent the risk of cyber attacks. Ruikongyuan fully considered redundant architecture and network security strategies during the system design stage, and adopted industrial-grade hardware and reliable software platform. In its project in a semiconductor wafer factory in Southwest China, the EMS system has maintained high availability since it was put into operation and has passed strict intranet security audits by customers.

The sustainability of the project is also a key consideration. Energy management is not a one-time project, but a process that requires continuous optimization and iteration. Ruikongyuan provides not only system delivery, but also continuous energy efficiency analysis services. They regularly provide customers with energy efficiency diagnostic reports, compare the energy consumption performance of different workshops and different shifts, and track the implementation effect of energy-saving measures. For example, in response to the huge energy consumption of clean room air conditioners in semiconductor factories, the Ruikongyuan team will combine local climate data (such as high temperature and humidity in South China, dry and cold in northern China) and actual production loads to dynamically optimize chillers, fan frequency conversion, and fresh air ratio. Control parameters such as ratio achieve adaptive energy-saving operation of the air conditioning system.

From the Yangtze River Delta, Central China, and South China in China to Thailand overseas, the layout of the semiconductor industry is expanding. This puts forward higher requirements for the standardization and localized adaptation of the energy management system. Ruikongyuan's global business perspective and localized service capabilities enable it to summarize and migrate best practices for projects in different regions, bringing more forward-looking and practical solutions to customers. For semiconductor companies committed to building green smart factories, choosing a partner who understands energy management, semiconductor process characteristics and automation technology, and can provide long-term data value services is a successful realization of refined energy management and win. A key step in winning the dual advantages of cost and environment.