Free range egg supplier

The Background

The largest supplier of free-range eggs to the retail sector in Ireland packs the eggs of 100,000 free-range laying hens spread across a 60 km radius and distributes them across their national customer base.

As a business deeply rooted in the local community, the egg-supplier recognizes their responsibility for protecting the local environment and strongly believes in sustainability. They have recently reaffirmed their commitment to sustainability by becoming a verified member of the Origin Green program, committing to many challenging sustainability targets.

The free-range egg supplier identified energy use efficiency as a key area that could be targeted to help them enhance their sustainability agenda and to reduce operational costs.

The Answer

EnergyCAP SmartAnalytics™ provided an energy management solution to monitor electricity consumption in all the main areas throughout the site. EnergyCAP SmartAnalytics can help companies with the Origin Green sustainability target area of manufacturing processes, which includes targeting reductions in energy use and emissions. Our innovative energy management solutions have been proven to help customers manage and reduce their energy use. For this reason, our experience in the food processing sector prompted the egg supplier to engage with EnergyCAP SmartAnalytic to help them manage their energy consumption.

Before working with EnergyCAP SmartAnalytics, the supplier found it difficult to effectively monitor their energy consumption using traditional bills, and it was almost impossible to pinpoint appliances or particular problem areas responsible for energy waste. EnergyCAP SmartAnalytics installed an energy management solution to monitor electricity consumption in all the main areas throughout the site, including the egg grading & packing facility and the adjoining administration areas.

The EnergyCAP SmartAnalytics solution allowed the egg supplier to monitor significant energy users actively, analyze energy usage patterns and identify energy-saving opportunities.

The Results

Since the introduction of EnergyCAP SmartAnalytics, the free-range egg supplier has utilized the information provided by the online energy Dashboard to become savvier with their energy usage and to optimize the operation of specific equipment. They have reduced energy use by as much as 10% for some equipment by implementing simple but effective measures such as encouraging staff to start up equipment only when needed and turning it off during production breaks.

The system has also provided the supplier with valuable information allowing them to make clever business decisions toward their sustainability targets.

In one case, they analyzed the energy running costs for one of their Sleeve Wrappers used in the packing process and determined that it made economic sense to change the wrapper to one that does not use plastic and therefore does not require heating. This decision will further improve the sustainability of their supply chain by decreasing the use of plastics.

Other Benefits

• EnergyCAP SmartAnalytics Sentinel Analytics sends notifications to your Dashboard by email or by text to notify you about abnormal changes in energy use, equipment inefficiencies, or even equipment failure.
• Set up Energy Performance Indicators to track facility performance over time.
• Measure & Verify energy savings from implemented energy-saving measures.