FTSE 250 company Cranswick plc is one of the largest food producers in Britain. As a major producer of fresh pork and food products to the nation’s supermarkets and the food service sector, its site at Preston site operates 24/7 and is heat and power intensive. 

BasePower developed, built and now operates an on-site energy programme at the company’s largest site in Preston, to make its energy infrastructure more competitive and support the group’s business-wide sustainability initiatives.

BasePower and Cranswick worked in partnership to design an on-site Combined and Heat and Power (CHP) scheme that would comfortably fit into the limited space available and would be inaudible to neighbours located next to the factory.

BasePower designed and installed a 2.0MW energy centre that includes a Jenbacher 6 series engine supplied by Clarke Energy. Among other noise-reducing techniques the fan set is placed low down and noise emitters are directed away from neighbouring properties. 

The CHP’s exhaust is used to make steam in a waste heat boiler for use in the site’s manufacturing processes. This offsets gas boiler use. Heat from the CHP jacket is used to heat and store water at temperatures of 65 and 95ºC. This is used for sterilisation and sanitisation processes, providing a more efficient use of energy and thereby reducing cost and carbon emissions.

The project was developed to ISO 9001 standards and BasePower took entire responsibility for the design, construction and commissioning. An additional upgrade to the site’s hot water tanks was delivered without any interruption to the site’s water supply to provide even greater energy efficiencies. 

BasePower provided the full investment for the Cranswick CHP scheme under a 9-year Power Purchase Agreement. The financing facility was provided in partnership with Berkshire Finance.  

BasePower provided the full investment for the Cranswick CHP scheme.

By using energy more efficiently than taking it solely from the grid, the  BasePower CHP scheme is reducing Cranswick’s energy costs and CO2 consumption and is providing a more sustainable use of energy for the future.

 Key facts for the project include:

•  The CHP provides 66% of the site’s electricity and 80% of its heat needs

• The scheme reduces Cranswick’s carbon footprint by over 500 tonnes of CO2 per year

• An online monitoring tool provides real-time visibility of the CHP’s performance to Cranswick’s engineering team

• BasePower manages the day running of the CHP, enabling Cranswick to concentrate on its own day operations.