Key points
The food and beverage sector, by the very nature of its end products, is an industry where power disruption has the potential to cause severe damage – to profitability and productivity as well as reputation.
Where margins can be tight, demand high, and competition for contracts fierce, the combination of net zero and Industry 4.0, with the benefits and challenges each present, requires power resilience across all aspects of production.
Alastair Morris, Chief Commercial Officer of Powerstar, looks at the risks associated with developments in manufacturing for the food industry in an uncertain energy landscape and considers approaches companies can take in mitigation.
Industry 4.0
For a sector such as food and beverage, with 24/7 production of often perishable goods and the tight margins already noted, the latest phase of the Industrial Revolution – Industry 4.0 – offers striking operational and productivity benefits, as detailed in a recent study by Autosys Industrial Solutions.
These include 35-40% reductions in downtime for equipment, similar improvements in utilisation of assets and up to 70% improvement in overall productivity. Harnessing of data across production processes, feedback loops to automate processes, together with the interconnectivity of production lines and data all contribute to potential improvements in productivity.
That said, alongside these benefits there are clear and growing risks, as Alastair explains,
“Disruption to energy supply has always been a threat to manufacturing productivity, with the inevitable impact on profitability. The Office of National Statistics estimates the current cost of downtime for British manufacturing as a whole to be approximately £180 billion per year.
The interconnected nature of Industry 4.0 necessitates an even greater requirement for a stable and uninterrupted power supply. While manufacturers have always protected critical equipment and processes using a traditional UPS – an uninterrupted power supply which protects individual and isolated pieces of equipment – the increased interconnectivity underpinning Industry 4.0 means that this option will no longer be a viable solution to protect against downtime.
The productivity benefits of interconnectivity will require the same level of energy supply security and uninterrupted power across all equipment feeding the line – including the robotics and the software running the production cycle. Coupled with specific requirements relating to food safety and quality assurance, the threat of downtime at any stage in production for food manufacturers becomes a critical issue.”
The unpredictability of net zero
A further strain for UK food and beverage manufacturing is the move to net zero and the inherently unpredictable nature of renewable power generation that is fundamental to this end goal. Last year, nearly 40% of the UK’s power came from renewables and the shift from fossil fuels – which have generally proved a reliable source of energy – to renewable sources will impact on the National Grid.
For this winter, the Grid has already warned that the total electricity demand may exceed available capacity by as much a 5% – the tightest margin since 2016, when manufacturers and other energy-intensive end users were required to either shut down or reduce operational usage to help balance supply and demand.
The impact of this is, potentially, immense. The operational effects of power disruption, such as a blackout or a brownout, cost 3% of all working days for UK manufacturing, with power failures risking an average loss of £2.8 million for a typical medium-sized business each year.
Given the shift to net zero, both the legislative imperative and the public push for carbon emission reduction, the National Grid is anticipating a five-fold increase in energy demands in the coming years while also admitting that its infrastructure is dated and no longer fit-for-purpose.
Sustainability and public scrutiny
All UK manufacturers are being tasked with proving their sustainability credentials and their plans for reaching a genuine net zero. The food and drink sector, perhaps more than any other, faces scrutiny – both from retailers and from consumers – regarding their sustainability performance.
The growth in plant-based food demonstrates an increasing consumer awareness of the carbon footprint involved in food production and retailers reflect these demands in their CSR and approach to the supply chain.
Tesco recently made a very public commitment to reaching net zero emissions across its value chain by 2050, from raw material sourcing through manufacturing to distribution and a roadmap set out by the British Retail Consortium convened businesses across the UK to commit to net zero products by 2040 – including major food retailers such as Aldi, Co-op, Greggs, Iceland Foods, Morrisons, Sainsburys and SPAR. Alastair notes,
“As both retailers and consumers demand more sustainable manufacturing and as energy supplies become more fragile, the need for a resilient power supply has never been more critical. Equally, public perceptions of greenwashing mean that manufacturers can no longer rely on using green energy tariffs, alone, as a means of demonstrating their environmental credentials.”
Power resilience
Given the above, it is unsurprising that manufacturers are placing ever-increasing importance on new energy strategies, moving away from the traditional solutions – which have worked well in the past – and looking now at power resilient technology, focusing on smart microgrids which can protect and support processes site-wide.
There are three core aspects to such a solution: the necessary uninterruptible power supply, voltage regulation and transformers. A Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) prevents disruption to power supply, voltage regulation dynamically changes on-site voltage to protect electrical equipment and reduce overall electricity consumption, and efficient transformers contribute to emission reduction.
Transformative benefits for food manufacturing
Three quarters of the transformers in the UK have been in operation for 25 years or more, a lifespan far exceeding the intended design-life, meaning inefficient and unreliable critical equipment can impact on production processes. For food manufacturing, this presents a clear productivity risk. Replacing outdated equipment, as well as mitigating this risk, can have significant reputational and financial benefits. Alastair highlights the impacts such an approach has had for some of Powerstar’s food manufacturing clients,
“A major plant-based food manufacturer came to us looking for a resilient power solution that would form a critical element of their Supply Chain Sustainability Strategy to reflect their proactive approach to responsible sourcing, waste minimisation and improved production process efficiency.
By replacing their old transformers with new amorphous core distribution transformers and integrated voltage regulation technology, energy consumption on-site was reduced by more than 10%, cutting down on carbon emissions by 365 tonnes per year while also saving over £70,000 in annual electricity costs.
For another food manufacturer – one whose business is based on high-volume production, requiring lean manufacturing with competitive pricing – the same approach to replacing out-dated transformers led to a 12.3% saving on total energy consumption, eliminating 206 tonnes of carbon equivalent from emissions and saving nearly £40,000 on annual energy bills.
In general, amorphous core products offer as much as a 75% reduction in core losses as compared to traditional cold rolled grain-oriented transformers, which makes for a win-win situation for energy-intensive sectors such as food manufacture: reduced carbon emissions as well as lower energy costs.”
Voltage regulation
The long operating hours involved in food manufacture, together with a high level of power consumption, indicate the clear benefits of voltage regulation as part of a resilient power strategy. Alastair explains,
“The National Grid is obliged to supply users with 230V, but with a fluctuating voltage. To meet this requirement, the Grid supplies a higher average voltage, around 245V. Where most electrical equipment in the UK is designed to work at 220V, the impact of operating at a higher voltage than is necessary can cause damage to equipment and shorten its operational lifespan.
Traditionally, this issue has been solved through a solution that transforms the entire voltage to a site, but the downside of this is large losses. A modern alternative, and one which we advocate, is a solution that transforms only the reduced voltage, meaning far lower energy loss.
Such technology can either offer a set level reduction for high but stable incoming voltage profiles or dynamically regulate a fluctuating voltage profile to maintain a specified set level. Simply put, by lowering the incoming voltage you reduce overall electricity consumption, which positively impacts on energy costs and carbon emissions.”
Intelligent uninterruptible power
With the unpredictability of renewables as an energy source, the importance of an uninterruptible power supply and the capability to store energy will only become more important as manufacturing becomes increasingly digitised. Comparing the latest technology in Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) to the more traditional UPS, Alastair highlights the benefits of new technology,
“Renewable firming is a vital element of a BESS, providing companies with a built-in capacity to store electricity generated on-site, for example from solar panels. Such energy can be stored and used when needed – avoiding the problem of intermittent energy supply – or can be sold back to the Grid, creating an additional revenue stream.
A traditional UPS, while protecting vital equipment in the event of a disruption to power supply, looks increasingly counter-productive in a net zero, Industry 4.0 world. Most of the time, although it will be sitting idle, it will still be using power and costing money. Switching back and forth from AC to DC, there is a loss of capacity estimated at between 10 and 15%.
In addition to contributing significantly to a company’s carbon footprint, this can also be very costly. For a 1MW system, this loss equates to around £200,000 additional energy costs per year and undermining the drive to sustainability. Where a BESS system is integrated into a smart microgrid, the capacity loss is much reduced, at around 1%. Your entire facility is protected from potential power disruption, and the system can be used to drive forward net zero initiatives, simultaneously.”
Resilient technology for a sustainable future
As we move to a net zero future, the legislative requirements for emission reduction throw up challenging issues for food manufacturers, as does the public demand for evidence of sustainability demonstrated through purchasing power.
However, the opportunities that Industry 4.0 brings – improved productivity and greater efficiency – suggest that implementing a resilient power strategy may be a crucial step towards ensuring a profitable future. Powerstar’s recent Manufacturing White Paper explores the relationship between net zero carbon and Industry 4.0 in more detail.
