Food manufacturers face many challenges when it comes to managing energy. Many food products require significant amounts of electricity to produce. These include pre-cooked meats, prepared meals, beer, wine, and dairy foods. This trend will continue as convenience-minded consumers turn increasingly to energy-intensive, pre-processed foods.

Safety is another concern – and another energy hog. Cooling, freezing, dehydration, debacterisation, pre-cooking, and packaging all drive up energy costs and affect bottom line profitability. In fact, energy is the third largest expense facing food manufacturers. And as energy costs continue to rise margins get squeezed even further.

Many manufacturers see these energy issues as unchangeable, but we think otherwise.

The Spara energy management system tackles rising energy costs by anticipating usage spikes and making precise adjustments to avoid high peak rate charges. Reducing loads by even 1-2 percent can significantly reduce these charges, which can account for as much as 40 percent of a food processor’s electricity bill. Spara also responds swiftly to signals from utilities allowing users to participate in smart grid programs like demand response and real-time pricing.

For more information on the Spara family of products, please visit our Products page.