FDBusiness.com

BasePower, an award-winning provider of on-site power plants for the food and industrial sectors, has announced a 9 year Power Purchase Agreement with Cranswick, for its Cranswick Country Foods site in Preston, Hull. Cranswick, a FTSE 250 company, is one of the largest food producers in Britain. Cranswick Country Foods in Hull is the company’s biggest site, producing fresh pork products and processing over 6500 pigs per day.

To support a number of improvement projects at Preston, Cranswick wanted to make its energy infrastructure more competitive and sustainable. BasePower will develop, install and operate a 2.0MW Combined Heat and Power (CHP) system, producing low-carbon electricity, steam and hot water for use in the site’s manufacturing process. The scheme also includes the upgrade of other heat infrastructure to maximise energy efficiency in the sterilisation and sanitisation processes.

BasePower has provided the full investment for the CHP system under a 9 year Power Purchase Agreement and will construct and operate the CHP throughout its life. The installation is already underway, with switch-on expected in late Summer 2018.

Darren Andrew, Site Director, Cranswick Country Foods, says: “We are delighted to work with BasePower to establish a low-carbon, on-site energy scheme for Preston, which is closely aligned with our Second Nature sustainability initiative. In an environment of rising power costs this will further improve our energy efficiency, helping to keep Cranswick at the cutting edge of cost competitiveness and reducing our environmental impact.”

George Fowkes, Director of BasePower, says: “We are now seeing real traction for CHP in the food sector as manufacturers realise they can achieve a step-change reduction in energy costs and carbon emissions with on-site energy generation. By working in close collaboration with the Cranswick team, the site will continue with business as usual while the CHP project is being installed, commissioned and operated.”