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No-cost and low-cost energy audits are great ways to jumpstart your energy-efficiency efforts and drop dollars – often quickly – to the bottom line.

Check with local utility providers on available audits. Utility company audits may vary in their range and degree of sophistication. Some may focus almost entirely on general facilities costs such as lighting, heating and air-conditioning. But others can make useful suggestions about processing equipment and other systems with less obvious potential for energy savings.

Check web sites for state and federal programs offering energy counsel, economic incentives and energy audits. And don’t forget universities offering comprehensive energy audits, particularly those involved in the federal Industrial Assessment Centers program listed earlier in this article. Contacts at these offices may be able to direct you to specialists in your own area as well.

Grimmway Farms saves more than $300,000 a year There’s expense…and then there’s expense. Capital expense was the primary concern when Grimmway Farms designed the refrigeration system for its Mountain View plant in Bakersfield, Calif. The design called for small pipe to save on the cost of construction. But that expense seemed penny wise and pound foolish when the company broke down its operational expenses several years later. Results of Grimmway Farms’ Mountain View upgrade Annual Facility Consumption: 9,400,800 kWh Project Cost: $793,000 Annual Electricity Savings: 3,491,085 kWh Annual Cost Savings: $339,683 Peak Demand Savings: 436 kW SPC Incentive: $300,000 Data provided by Pacific Gas & Electric “Drink a soft drink with a cocktail straw, and see how hard it is. Now try using a bigger straw, one of those 3/8 inchers they give you with the jumbo drinks,” suggests Ron Black, general manager of engineering and construction for Grimmway Farms, the largest shipper of carrots in California. “By increasing the pipe size on our refrigeration system, we made it easier to draw the liquid through. And the compressors don’t have to work as hard. That saves energy.” The success of the Mountain View plant relies heavily on its refrigeration system for hydro-cooling and cold storage. What made the investment doubly enticing was that the capital cost of reworking the refrigeration system into a more energy-efficient operation was also reduced by financial incentives provided by its utilities provider, Pacific Gas & Electric (www.pge.com). Reworking the refrigeration system involved more than increasing the size of the piping. Insulation had begun to deteriorate, and the system controls were not functioning effectively. So inefficient was the system that it required more than one compressor during light load conditions. Grimmway’s comprehensive solution eliminated an entire engine room and its two refrigeration compressors from the system. In addition to the piping and insulation upgrades, the carrot processor installed new valves for better control. State-of-the-art digital, programmable temperature and defrost computer controls helped optimize the refrigeration cycle. The energy savings tallied from the investment were 3,400,000 kWh per year – enough to qualify for PG&E’s Standard Performance Contract (SPC) program and its $300,000 incentive. This offset a large part of the cost of the capital-intensive energy project. The SPC Program, administered by the state’s investor-owned utilities, provides significant incentive payments to companies that retrofit their commercial and industrial facilities with energy-efficient systems. The incentives are based upon kilowatt-hour and therm savings that are measured and verified by the participating company for two years following implementation of the project. “In effect it has really been a program of partnership…both locally here with the Kern Division and through the main office in San Francisco,” says Black.

GIVING PUBLIX THE BEST PRICE ON ENERGY Energy providers will roll out the red carpet for big customers…and the red wagon, too, when needed. Food processing operations are often some of the biggest users of energy in a given region. Utility providers should be anxious to keep them happy. Publix, with retail stores and processing facilities for dairy, bakery, deli and produce in the area of Lakeland, Fla., is a favored customer of local utility provider Lakeland Electric. “The Publix dairy plant is contracted to receive 27 tractor truckloads of raw milk per day,” notes Lakeland Electric key account executive, Ron Pierce. “So it is important to keep them up and running.” As the utility’s largest customer, Publix negotiates a favorable energy contract rate with Lakeland Electric. But it’s on the service end where the utility steps up its attention. An advanced transfer system that encircles the Publix processing complex monitors and controls feeds and distributes power as needed. The system design was a joint effort of Publix and Lakeland Electric. The utility has advised and provided engineering assistance to Publix on the energy angle of other projects, too, including a recent freezer installation for ice cream storage. “Our service emphasizes power quality and reliability,” says Pierce. “The utility is ready to assist at any time.” That claim was put to the test when a fire disrupted energy distribution to the dairy facility at the Publix processing complex. “We worked with Publix around the clock after the fire,” says Pierce. “They had a new modified atmosphere banana storage facility under construction. A new feed had been installed, but we hadn’t installed the switch-gear yet. We were able to put it in the dairy. “Within seven hours they had the new feeds.”

 

 

Top 10 Energy Efficiency Recommendations for Bread and Bakery Products Use most efficient type of electric motors Analyze flue gas for proper air-fuel ration Use energy-efficient belts and other improved mechanisms Install compressor air intakes in coolest locations Reduce the pressure of compressed air to the minimum required Eliminate leaks in inert gas and compressed air lines/valves Insulate bare equipment Insulate steam/hot water lines Install timers and/or thermostats Install setback timers Editor's Note: Use demand controller or load shedder Minimize water usage Optimize plant power factor Preheat boiler makeup water with waste process heat Repair faulty insulation in furnaces, boilers, etc. Use outside air for compressor intakes Lease/purchase baler; sell cardboard to recycler Improve lubrication practices Source: Energy Information Administration survey; via Alliant Energy Most of these recommendations also were suggested for plants processing fluid milk, sausages and prepared meats, meat packing, poultry processing and flour and grain mill products categories. Additional recommendations from these other food categories include: