04 Sep ICS secures project to install 1.5MWe CHP System at Prominent UK Dairy
Combined Heat and Power will help one of the UK’s Dairy plants to save over £800,000 annually with a combined heat and power unit.
Leading the way with sustainability
They have the UK’s biggest milk balancing site, butteroil plant and fresh dairy ingredients facility and are the only independent chocolate crumb and sweetened condensed milk manufacturer in the UK. They also have the UK’s largest segregated plant-based facilities for dairy alternatives, and place great emphasis on sustainability. So when it started making plans to expand production, it wanted to ensure the site operated in the most energy efficient manner possible.
Taking control of energy
The Dairy is installing a 1.5MWe Combined Heat and Power (CHP) unit from a range of the most electrically efficient units. Through this installation, electricity is produced at low-voltage, then increased to a high-voltage for connection to the site’s 11KV ring main.
Exhaust gases from the engine are used to generate the site’s base steam load requirements, and hot water is recovered from the engine, stored, then re-used by other equipment on the site.
The Dairy will also benefit from a fully comprehensive ten-year maintenance contract to ensure the CHP unit continues to run efficiently.
The results
The CHP unit is helping to reduce Energy costs by around £800,000 per year, allowing the company to pay for the warranty-backed unit in around two years.
“We were impressed by the technical innovation showed. They gave us complete peace of mind, carrying out detailed site evaluations and managing a full installation. We now have plans to work on similar projects at our other sites,” explains the dairy’s Sustainability Manager.
The other Dairies within the group are also installing or considering installing similar systems, enabling it to be at the forefront of environmental leadership within the food industry.
Combined Heat and Power has been powering the food and beverage industry for more than 30 years. That puts us in a great position to be able to help large organisations to take control of their energy production so that demand for heat and electricity is never a concern again.”
Why
Combined heat and power units:
Stabilises energy costs over a fixed period
Improves environmental performance
Provides stability of supply
Helps generate power independently to meet demand
Paul Doherty, Director Industrial Cogen Solutions Ltd