![]() |
Best Practice Guide |
|
Food and Beverage Growers and Processors |
||
![]() |
|
Case StudyS. Martinelli and CompanyLocation: Watsonville, Santa Cruz County Company Website: http://www.martinellis.com Company Information
Martinelli's operates two juice processing and bottling facilities in Watsonville. The orignal facility is a 60,000 sq. ft. single-story highbay plant originally built in 1885. The main facility is a 390,000 sq. ft. single-story highbay building originally built in 1968 by Green Giant Foods as a vegetable processing plant. Together, these two facilities process 100,000 gallons of apple juice each day. Through a combination of capital investments and $30,000 in rebates from Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), S. Martinelli & Co cut its annual electricity use 13 percent in 2005, compared to 2004, including an estimated reduction of 40 kilowatts in peak demand. Retrofits to highbay lighting, installation of an EMS, and upgrades to two compressed air systems alone save more than 700,000 kilowatt-hours annually, reducing utility costs by about $86,000.
At Martinelli's, key company leaders, like fourth generation Vice President John Martinelli, make a priority of sustainable practices and environmentally sensitive production. Energy efficiency plays a large role in Martinelli's sustainable practices, as well as impacting bottom-line results - with looming energy costs of 7 to 8 percent of operating expenditures, the company continually analyzes how much electricity and natural gas it takes to produce a gallon of apple juice. According to Greg Galvin, Martinelli's Maintenance Supervisor who spearheads energy efficiency efforts, the company has realized that, "Energy is no longer a facet to be ignored in budgeting for the cost of goods. The most viable tool the (utility) consumer has at their disposal is demand-side management." As a result the company has kept its energy cost from increasing, even though the cost of energy has gone up As an extension of its corporate "green" philosophy, Martinelli's is currently considering a photovoltaic system on the main facility that will supply 70 percent of the power demand, and is working to achieve a Green Business Certification for its water conservation, energy efficiency, pollution control and employee education programs.
Not only is the new lighting significantly more energy efficient, it also has resulted in a better indoor environment. Greg Galvin explains that, "new technology lighting makes the work environment better and brighter and requires less maintenance."
Once delivered to the bottling line, Martinelli's juice is pasteurized, cooled, labeled and ready for sale. The entire process - including filling and bottling machines, filters and tanks, and case packaging with positioning devices, stop gates and motorized valves -- relies on a large compressed air system as well as over a hundred motors. Realizing the potential for energy leaks along this entire system, Martinelli's initiated a compressed air audit and consequently upgraded the compressed air systems at both facilities. Upgrades included an oil-free air compressor with flow control, a compressed air pipe loop, and EPACT motors, which deliver an automatic two to three percent increase in energy efficiency. In addition to being more energy efficient, the upgraded air systems are also cleaner and quieter. The compressed air upgrade resulted in less leaks and real time cycling according to plant pressure. Not only did the juice company obtain a $24,000 rebate for the compressed air system upgrades and replacement motors, but Martinelli's has also reduced its use of the system by 13 percent, which will continue to reward the company with lower energy costs year after year.
Since Martinelli's creates "press and bottle" schedules a day ahead of time, participating in PG&E's Emergency Demand Response Program (EDRP) was relatively simple. With this voluntary, day ahead bidding process, Martinelli's was able to participate in several events lasting two to three hours at a time. In these cases, workers were simply tasked to other important functions - ranging from machine maintenance to cleaning - while operations were halted or slowed to save energy. In each case, the company shaved as much as 50 kilowatts of demand. In order to manage peak shaving and shifting of energy loads, Martinelli's brought in Applied Power Technologies (APT). APT installed whole-facility meters in one building that provides real-time energy use data on peak demand, total consumption, power quality, and outages, if any. Martinelli's staff can access this data on a computer 24-hours a day, 7-days a week via a dedicated Ethernet connection. This data acts as a "shadow" bill for electricity and natural gas, basically, a second set of cost-controls to verify utility bills. With increasing monthly utility costs, even small errors can quickly add up to big losses. Since utilities can only provide next-day data, the advanced meters allow Galvin to ensure that the company reaches its peak demand reduction goals when participating in the EDRP. The advanced meters help turn a fixed-cost - energy use - into a variable cost by providing comprehensive data that can track performance and improve forecasting accuracy. Martinelli's is in the process of incorporating process controls into the metering and EMS systems, to further improve data collection and system optimization.
|