Ford’s largest energy-efficiency contract delivered more than $350 million in savings.

Key results

Reduce energy use across a complex manufacturing portfolio

Ford set aggressive company-wide goals to cut energy use and greenhouse gas emissions across manufacturing. The challenge: improve performance at scale across many large, energy-intensive facilities without disrupting reliable operation.

Replace legacy steam with a standardized hot-water platform

Building on an established track record at Ford, WEI won the company’s largest-ever energy-efficiency contract: a 10-year program across 12 manufacturing and administrative facilities in the United States and Canada, totaling 25 million square feet.

WEI converted steam systems to its Liquid Chimney design with closed-loop hot-water distribution, then standardized the engineering to replicate it efficiently from site to site.

Design for actual demand, not constant peak load

WEI sized, modulated and controlled the hot-water system around real-time building demand rather than running continuously at peak load. The design could reach approximately 98% energy-transfer efficiency, compared with about 50% for the steam system it replaced.

More than double the guaranteed savings

WEI’s program saved Ford more than $350 million in energy and avoided maintenance costs — more than double the $150 million guaranteed over the 10-year contract.

It also delivered a 54% reduction in natural gas and a 46% reduction in electricity use, required no capital cost to Ford, and finished on time and under budget in a 30-month implementation.

Standardized engineering at portfolio scale