It is the first cogeneration installation, funded by capital investment, in the Iglo Group since it was sold by Unilever to the private equity house Permira in 2006.
Sized to fit the factory’s base electrical load of 3.5 MW, the plant is also supplying steam and hot water to the Birds Eye factory, generating savings on the energy bill and delivering a carbon emissions reduction. This is in line with the Forever Foods strategy, for which Birds Eye aims to cut emissions by 20% by 2020.
“The CHP plant is meeting our expectations,” said sourcing unit manager Craig Hamilton, “and we have a favourable financial performance currently, as the spark gap is better than our capital expenditure assumptions.”
The project started in January 2013, when Birds Eye submitted a planning application to the Waveney District Council for the approval of a 3.3 MW CHP plant and signed an EPC Contract (Engineering Procurement and Construction) with the Italian firm Grastim JV, a global player on the CHP market, already serving Iglo Group sister factory in Italy under a power purchase agreement.
In April 2013, Birds Eye obtained the go-ahead from the Council, and by October 2013 (perfectly in line with the project timescale), the CHP started producing electricity through an 11 kV generator connected to site ring, high-pressure steam (19 barg) mostly used in frying lines, as well as hot water (mainly used for sanitation).
The encouraging results achieved so far brought Birds Eye to further invest in an additional hot water distribution system (Grastim design) to further exploit the CHP residual hot water potential and enhance overall efficiency of the system.
Source: Grastim
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