Ginsters Callington bakery in Cornwall, reduces pastry production costs with ABB drives, with payback of just one year.

Industry: Food & Bev

Application: Chilled Water Pumps system

Challenge:

Ginsters bakery, which employs 370 staff producing more than three and a half million pastry products a week, was keen to investigate its energy use to improve efficiency and cut costs at the plant. Tom Crawford, Projects Manager, says: “Ginsters is committed to reducing its carbon footprint and this is part of our strategy to do so. Of course, it also makes good business sense to reduce the spend on utilities.”

Ginsters approached ABB and APDS, Local Drives and motors partner, to carry out an energy survey at the plant. The survey focused on the refrigeration system, in which chilled water pumps ran constantly with a full unrestricted flow. These pumps provide chilled water to the cold storage and production areas of the plant.

Tom Crawford adds, “Although the application itself is not critical, it supports a system which is critical to the production facility.”

APDS Solution:

APDS measured the power consumption of the pumps over 24 hours and analysis showed that using a variable speed drive to achieve a speed reduction of only 6% would reduce energy consumption, and therefore, operational costs by some 17%. A trial installation of an ABB drive showed improved stability of the system and again reduced power consumption.

Conclusion:

Following this, Eight ABB ACS550 standard drives were installed on all pumps. They are saving Ginsters bakery 17% per annum on its chilled water energy bill following installation at its Callington bakery.

Alan Jones of APDS says: “The drives have been running for eight months now and Ginsters are set to achieve a one-year payback on the application.”

Tom Crawford adds: “Reduced power consumption has been realised on site and we know from the pre and post installation surveys that we are using less electricity to drive the pumps.”

Footnote:

Please note these customer-approved stories are collected since 2000. While some company names may have changed during this time, the principles and methods described to save energy or improve productivity are applicable today. contact APDS Ltd Bristol: 01179 822 049 www.apds.co.uk