Meat&Poultry - December 2011 - 71

Maintenance Tips

Offsetting rising energy costs
BY MARK EYSTAD
meatpoultry@sosland.com

n a recent conversation with the CEO of a large Southeastern power company, he related how pending Environmental Protection Agency regulations may reduce reliability and increase costs for everyone. Although he was referring to retail consumers, I immediately thought of my client base of food processors who are burdened with huge utility bills every month. Energy costs in states where energy companies have been recently deregulated and who are heavily reliant on coal could see energy costs increase 10 percent to 60 percent. Of course, energy costs can and will be negotiated by corporate management and power company representatives, but costs are going to increase. Regardless of the price of energy, the responsibility falls to the maintenance department to control the actual energy usage. So, what should maintenance departments be doing now to prepare for the inevitable?

gy source, these will be expressed as kilowatt-hours for electricity or British Thermal Units (Btu’s) for thermal energy. (See figures 1 and 2) Between cooling the production areas, the work in process coolers, the freezers and the ice makers, the largest cost of energy in processing facilities is often refrigeration. One of the largest wastes is improperly sized units. How many production facilities are the same cubic feet in size today compared to when the facility was built?

ficient when all factors are considered. And, while Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations may be the motive for a rigorous preventive mainte-

Analyze data
Maintenance departments are integral to ensuring equipment runs at peak performance. Yet, in many cases, maintenance departments don’t even see actual energy costs. So, the first thing to do is to analyze at least the previous year’s data. Keep in mind, though, that two year’s worth of data can confirm peak costs due to seasonality. Often the energy bills will be sourced in accounting where the focus is on dollars. Unfortunately, with rate changes at different times of the year (or possibly even the time of day) this is a lousy comparison. What you need to know is how much actual energy is consumed and when. Depending on the ener-

When plant-remodeling projects are designed, refrigeration units are checked to make sure the unit will handle extra loads. But are all variables taken into consideration? One of those examples is their location. How will air flow change in the facility? Will the result be a cold spot at one end of the room just to maintain minimum required temperatures at the other end of the room? These variables can cause units to over-cycle or short-cycle costing thousands, maybe tens of thousands of dollars a year. While it may technically be the correct unit, it might not be the most ef-

nance program and a comprehensive paper trail for ammonia-based refrigeration systems, it is the associated energy savings from keeping equipment at peak performance that can be the ultimate payback. Making sure compressors are running at peak performance, especially when loads are the highest, is imperative to controlling energy costs. Depending on the size and age of facilities, lighting can be another large

www.MeatPoultry.com • December 2011 • Meat&Poultry • 71

http://www.MeatPoultry.com

Meat&Poultry - December 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Meat&Poultry - December 2011