The Association for Decentralised Energy
Reduces annual electricity use by 1.6MW
Operational budget protected in face of rising energy costs
Enhances sustainability credentials
The processing, deep-freezing and cold storage of vegetables uses huge amounts of energy, making it the largest monthly cost for d’Arta. To offset rising electricity costs, the business wanted to explore Demand Side Response (DSR).
Together with the d’Arta team, REstore (now part of Centrica Business Solutions) performed an on-site DSR audit. This revealed the potential for 1.6 MW of power curtailment in three different cold storage rooms at the plant.
These heavily insulated warehouses have a substantial thermal buffer able to keep temperatures low for a few hours without the need for extra cooling. However, the audit also revealed the identified flexible power did not fully comply with the technical specifications imposed by the Transmission Supply Operator. To address this, Centrica Business Solutions demonstrated its value added as an aggregator by integrating d’Arta’s power curtailment potential in its broader portfolio of participating companies using its FlexPond™ platform.
Through Centrica Business Solutions’ DSR programme, d’Arta is able to curtail 1.6 MW of electricity consumption and generate payments to offset rising electricity costs.
The project protects d’Arta’s production. Using highly automated food processing and logistics systems, d’Arta is able to produce and distribute over 4,000 pallets of ready-to-eat meals and packaged vegetables every week. Isolating the flexible power for DSR purposes from the freezer production lines enables d’Arta to maintain the cooling processes for both cold storage facilities and for the production lines in the same machine room.
The benefits aren’t just financial. The DSR solution lowers the company’s carbon footprint and helps to curb global climate change.
