This is according to Cala van der Westhuizen, Head of Sales at EP Refrigeration – a division of Energy Partners and part of the PSG group of companies.
A possible consideration for food manufacturers to consider during these challenging economic times is the outsourcing of key utility services which impact an operation’s power consumption and capital investment decisions. This can be massively beneficial to helping a business restructure and become much more efficient.
“While many companies are putting cost-saving measures in place and streamlining their operations for maximum efficiency, the fact is that the industry cannot fight this battle on its own. Completely outsourcing one of the industry’s biggest cost drivers to dedicated service providers could go a long way towards providing companies in this sector with practical and immediate cost reduction options as well as long-term cost efficiency horizons.”
Guaranteed competitive cost
He explains that in a CaaS scenario, the business does not need to own any of the refrigeration infrastructure. Instead, a service provider owns and operates the refrigeration plant and sells the cooling produced at a guaranteed competitive cost. “There are several benefits to this approach. To start with, the service provider provides all of the upfront capital investment and assumes complete maintenance responsibility and risk related to the refrigeration plant.
“Secondly, the service provider can install state-of-the-art refrigeration systems without the need for the business to provide upfront capital. This reduces the amount of electricity consumed by the business as well as removing the risk of breakdowns and extended periods of downtime.”
Cala cites the example of one of Energy Partners’ clients, Afrupro. “This fruit packing company was experiencing consistent problems with its existing industrial ammonia plant. Not only was it consuming excessive amounts of power, but the cold storage rooms were also operating above required temperatures as a result of the deteriorating system.
“Once we took over the ownership as well as the operation of their plant and invested in new infrastructure, we were able to reduce the energy cost of the site’s cold rooms by 20%. The contract also saved the company R3.7 million in capital expenditure.”
Combination
In addition, combining complementary outsourced utility services, such as renewable solar energy and steam generation, can have even greater beneficial effects, as in the example of Lynca Meats. The company engaged the services of Energy Partners for the outsourced production of solar energy, steam and refrigeration resulting in a reduction in the overall energy cost of more than 30%.
Lastly, Cala states that partnering with a service provider allows the client to make better business decisions through the intelligent application of data-led energy strategies. “Data is central to ensuring that an operation can make better business decisions in relation to its energy consumption, which is why a service provider should be able to provide real-time energy monitoring and additional long-term energy efficiency strategies to reduce energy intensity. At Energy Partners, our Intelligence division does exactly that, as well as engage with electricity suppliers on behalf of the user to ensure that the business is always charged the lowest possible tariffs.”
MLS Group
Ahlumile Mahlinza
Tel: 062 182 3463
ahlumile.mahlinza@mslgroup.com
www.mslgroup.co.za
Drone Photo Lynca Meats 2
