Sector
Dairies, meat and food processing
Cooling, cleaning cycles and continuous processes make both the peak and supply security relevant.
4,074 kWp
PV by Equator Solar
3,923 kWh
Storage by Equator Solar
34
Storage projects by Equator Solar
15
Years of Equator Solar
Refrigeration and continuous lines make supply security as relevant as the peak.
Refrigeration compressors cycle throughout the day, CIP cleaning (cleaning in place, without taking the lines apart) adds its own load block between production runs, and continuous processing lines cannot be restarted without loss once they stop. That combination makes both peak shaving and backup power relevant on the same site, more than in a typical industrial load profile. Equator Solar Systems Ltd, led by ZNX’s managing directors, has built solar systems for dairy and agro-processing sites in East Africa, some with battery storage, including a continuous-process dairy plant where the supply could not break.
Refrigeration
Compressor cycling plus CIP cleaning load
Continuous lines
Cannot restart without loss once stopped
How the load looks, and where to start
Typical load pattern
Refrigeration, CIP cleaning and continuous lines create a load with a peak and a strict need for supply security.
Refrigeration compressors and CIP cleaning add repeatable load blocks on top of a continuous process base load. When the peak and the backup question have to be answered together, a feasibility study is the right tool.
- Refrigeration compressor cycling adds a repeatable load block
- CIP cleaning cycles add their own load between production runs
- Continuous processing lines cannot restart without loss once stopped
- The Equator Solar dairy and agro-processing references apply directly here
Where to start
A feasibility study weighs the peak-shaving case and the backup case together, following the method of DIN EN 16247-1 and ISO 50002.
Backup power protects critical refrigeration circuits against an outage. Peak shaving addresses the compressor and CIP load blocks that set the capacity charge.
- Backup power for critical refrigeration circuits
- Peak shaving against compressor and CIP load blocks
- One feasibility study covers both questions on a manufacturer-neutral basis
Use cases in this sector
Two use cases apply most often to dairy, meat and food-processing sites.
Role and fee
The same independence rules and fee structure apply to every project in every sector.
One role per project
On every project we take one of two roles, never both. As independent advisor we are paid a fee, earn nothing on hardware and take no commission from manufacturers or installers. As turnkey partner we deliver the system through vetted installation partners under one contract. If we wrote the specification or evaluate the bids, we do not bid.
Fee
Load-profile analysis, feasibility studies, quote reviews and acceptance tests are offered at a fixed price agreed on the scope. Owner's engineering is billed by day rate or as a fixed fee. Turnkey delivery is a fixed-price contract.
The figures and references on this site are projects of Equator Solar Systems Ltd in East Africa. The contracting party for ZNX services is ZNX Energy GmbH.
