BasePower brings clean technology and smart energy to the automotive sector

BasePower has joined the Northern Automotive Alliance,  to bring smart energy use and carbon reduction to the automotive industry.

Automotive manufacturing is characterised by high energy use in a tough competitive environment with very strong buyer power. The lower pound and delayed investment in core UK energy infrastructure means that UK manufacturers are now experiencing sharp increases in power prices. In addition, vehicle assemblers require ever more sustainable uses of energy from their suppliers.

Combined Heat and Power (CHP) is a highly efficient process that captures and utilises the heat from on-site electricity generation. This results in significantly reduced costs for power, heat and cooling. A great deal of the heat use in the sector is below 120°C: maintaining humidity and temperature in paint and assembly halls, as well as for use in curing, drying and autoclaving. CHP is ideally and traditionally associated with this range of temperatures. It can also contribute to heat use up to and above 1000°C in the form of steam supply or pre-heat to combustion gases.

In automotive manufacturing the requirement for rapid payback on investment is often hindered by benefit-sharing clauses in supply contracts, making many in-house investments in energy efficiency unviable. However when installed on a fully-financed basis, CHP can enable automotive manufacturers and suppliers to access substantial energy cost and CO2 reductions without having to deploy scarce and expensive capital of their own. Indeed BasePower usually installs its projects on a build-own-operate basis.

“The automotive sector is at the heart of the UK’s new Industrial Strategy, but its cost competitiveness is under threat from rising energy prices,” said George Fowkes, Founder Director of BasePower. “We look forward to working with NAA members to help get their energy costs under control and maintain their leading position as the very best of Europe’s auto manufacturers.”

This article was originally published in full in the NAA newsletter in April 2017.

BasePower wins Rushlight Clean Technology Award for on-site energy generation

Basepower has been crowned a winner at the Rushlight Awards, the prestigious annual awards for leading companies in clean technology innovation and sustainable solution development.

In Rushlight’s 10th anniversary year, BasePower was judged the winner in the "Power Generation and Transmission” category.

BasePower was recognised for successfully combining Combined Heat and Power (CHP) technology with a fully financed build, own and operate model into a unique solution, making on-site power generation an attractive option for large energy users. BasePower’s first two projects in the food manufacturing and automotive sectors, which will considerably reduce energy consumption, costs and carbon emissions, were cited as examples in the entry.

John Loughhead, Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, presented BasePower with the award at the Rushlight Awards ceremony, which took place at the Royal College of Surgeons on 25 January. 

Rushlight is the only set of awards specifically designed to support and promote the latest clean technologies, innovations, initiatives and deployment projects for businesses and other organisations throughout UK, Ireland and internationally.

Caledonian Cheese Company CHP project reaches full capacity

As International Cheese Day was this week, it’s fitting that we have a reached a major milestone at the The Caledonian Cheese Company, part of Groupe Lactalis and the second largest dairy company worldwide.

BasePower's very first Combined Heat and Power (CHP) project in the food industry reached its capacity today when we ramped up to the full 2MW of output at the dairy in Stranraer, Scotland. Big congratulations go out to the entire team on site for their hard work in getting the project installed on schedule and for a great achievement.

BasePower’s CHP project at The Caledonian Cheese Company is projected to generate 77% of all the site’s electricity consumption, supply 24% of heat usage and save at least 2,000 tons of CO2 per year.

BasePower CHP Project in Energy World magazine

BasePower's new CHP project at The Caledonian Cheese Company in Stranrarer, is featured in the latest edition of Energy World magazine, in a feature on the development of commercial energy management (CEM). 

In an article written by John Piggott, Director of JPEC Ltd, he considers the growth of CEM as a commercial business model. Whilst Power Purchase Agreements for electricity are now as commonplace as heat meters, the commercial supply of heat to industrial users is now more likely to be part of a combined energy service, with models including Combined Heat and Power (CHP), cooling and waste disposal. 

BasePower's 2MW CHP installation at The Caledonian Cheese Company (part of Groupe Lactalis) is cited, where process steam, heat and power is provided at the point of use. BasePower worked with JPEC and other supply chain partners to modularise the distributed energy equipment that was installed and ensure that it is deployed efficiently in changing markets. 

JPEC Ltd is an independent energy systems consultancy and BasePower partner.  The article is published in Energy World, January 2017 and is available to members of the Energy Institute or registered users. 

Are we sailing into a perfect storm for energy prices?

Believe it or not, UK industry has been enjoying a two-year cheap energy holiday, with costs for 1MWh of power and gas as low as £85/£15 for some. But that mini-era is coming to an end. 

Consider these facts:

•    With commodities priced in dollars, the low post-Brexit pound is already pushing up the cost of heat and power.
•    The non-commodity costs of power are rising faster than inflation, and will surpass £55/MWh for many industrial users in the next 12 months.
•    The closing gap between generation capacity and demand is driving further volatility. Prices spiked as high as £1,000/MWh in May 2016, even before Brexit.* 

Indeed, most suppliers’ power price forecasts are now much worse than DECC’s last attempt in late 2014:

Tinkering at the edges isn’t going to solve this problem and it’s not just about getting a better deal out of your supplier. Riding out the energy price storm means using less energy.
 
First, get a mixed-discipline team together.  Your engineers usually have an idea where the savings can be made, but they will need help to make the case. As a minimum, co-opt someone with commercial skills and the language and influence necessary to get investments and interventions signed off. A senior environmental person is also very useful as energy savings mean carbon savings, and that’s a good supporting story. 

Second, it’s impossible to make a valid investment case without data. Collect an hourly picture of energy use for each major plant item throughout the year for the engineering team to analyse for usage and wastage, and calculate how much it will cost to put right.

When the team has identified where savings can be made and what the investment requirements are, then it can make the case for intervention.

In some cases the solution will be behavioural, such as turning off plant when production stops and optimising flow and temperature settings.  In these cases employees will need to feel that adjusting settings will not compromise normal operations. And it helps to share the benefits that savings bring – even if only with praise.

Moving on to technical solutions, there are an increasing number of ‘plug and play’ fixes that are easy to install and have well-documented paybacks. Examples include LED lighting, boiler economisers and variable speed drives. The impact of any one of these in isolation is relatively small. However, demonstrating successful payback is really effective in building confidence for more ambitious interventions. 

some of these are in place, then larger energy saving projects can be considered. Combined Heat and Power (CHP), boiler house refits or ‘de-steaming’ will save the largest sums. BasePower’s own CHP technology is proven to save between 10-20% of the cost of energy supplied; for sites using over 1MW of power this can be a sizeable six-figure sum. The larger savings serve to justify the additional complexity and the need for third party expertise to interpret vendor sales pitches. 
 
It looks like stormy energy waters are ahead for high-energy users in narrow margin industries such as food and drink manufacturing. Ask your electricity supplier for a five-year power price projection if you doubt it. Our advice is to get the team together and start looking at your energy use data now. 

*UK electricity prices spike after power stations break down, FT.com, 10 May 2016

This article was originally published in Food and Drink Business Europe, December 2016.

We’re expanding: BasePower seeks Head of Procurement & Operations

As a result of major contract wins to install Combined Heat and Power (CHP) projects in multiple market sectors, we are expanding and seek a Head of Procurement & Operations to join our team.

BasePower is partnering exclusively with Bawtry Executive Search & Selection to recruit a talented, self-starter Head of Procurement & Operations, in a National role. BasePower Ltd develops, finances and operates natural gas-fired CHP systems providing power, cooling and heat for users with annual energy bills of £1 million or more. We are a small and friendly company based in central London, with a nationwide portfolio of projects in construction and development.  

Reporting to the CEO, the Head of Procurement and Operations will be responsible for leading our procurement, construction and commissioning activities, subsequently managing full-scale operations of the portfolio. This is a key role in delivering exemplary service to BasePower’s growing portfolio of customers across food and drink, automotive, pharmaceutical manufacturing, chilled logistics and data centres.

 
Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Procurement:

• Lead the procurement of BasePower projects, delivering to safety, quality, cost and time requirements. Manage the production of technical specifications, employer’s requirements, package definitions and procurement contracts. Tender, appoint and oversee the management of suppliers and contractors.

Construction:

• Oversee construction and commissioning activities on site and manage reporting.Through performance of contractors onsite and personal input, maintain excellent relationships with the customer.

Operations:

• Establish the operations function and set performance standards. Recruit and retain local and national supply chain, and any other required resources. Manage the operating portfolio to agreed KPIs. Through operational performance and personal input, maintain excellent relationships with the customer on site.

Do you have what BasePower is looking for?

• A degree level qualification in relevant subject, or membership of a professional institute. At least 5 years managing procurement, construction and commissioning activities with their related trades and requirements, including Health and Safety compliance. A track record in operating a fleet of assets or local operations over an extended area, including the selection and management of subcontractors. Ability to take ownership and a self-starter. Ability to influence and build relationships with key stakeholders including clients, staff and sub- contractors. Strong commercial acumen. A commitment to working nationally. Experience of working in the energy sector is preferred but not essential.

How to apply

If you match the specified criteria and are interested in the role, please contact Tracy Bowler on 07739 071226 or email your cv to: tracy@bawtryexecutivesearchselection.co.uk by no later than Friday 9th December 2016. Interviews will take place the fortnight commencing 12th December 2016. In return BasePower offers an excellent package. A full job description is available.

BasePower do not require and will not accept any third party CV’s from Recruitment Agencies

Visit Sustainable Food Expo for Energy Saving Tips

Most energy suppliers have increased their power price forecasts, which is bad news for large energy users such as food and drink manufacturers. BasePower will be returning to the Sustainable Food Expo 2016 next week where this issue will be firmly on the agenda. 

Using the Basepower Energy Savings Calculator, our team will be on hand to provide expert analysis of potential areas where you can save energy costs. Just bring a recent gas and electricity bill to stand 6 during the conference for one-to-one analysis of your existing energy use and actionable energy saving tips. Get in touch now to find out more and book your consultation. 

Don’t miss the BasePower workshop: Will energy costs soon threaten your business? at 11.25am in the Energy Theatre. Base Power’s George Fowkes will talk about how to make the business case for energy saving projects and share examples of successful projects in the food sector. 

Sustainable Food Expo takes place on 15 November at the National Motorcycle Museum, Birmingham, and is the annual forum covering sustainability issues in the supply chain. For complimentary tickets visit the website. 

BasePower at CHP Industry Conference

The Association for Decentralised Energy (ADE) ran a Combined Heat and Power Conference in London (last week) and BasePower was proud to join the speaker line-up.

The theme of this year's conference was “Clearing the Hurdle; how to deliver a CHP business case.” First up was Helena Crow, CHP lead at the new Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy. She shared what the government is doing to support the growth of CHP as a viable technology, and gave an update on issues including the government’s view on barriers to wider CHP adoption and Ofgen's review of embedded benefits.

Tim Rotheray, director of the ADE, then put forward the ADE’s view of the Government’s new industrial strategy. He highlighted that there is a real need for joined-up thinking as past CHP policy has tended to be siloed.  Notably, the Government’s own prediction is that, mainly due to ‘policy cost’ increases, electricity and power supply prices will rise significantly from the point of £80-90 per MWH in 2016 to a potential price point of £140 in 2030. As policy cost represents the major chunk of energy cost, this makes the argument for putting energy generation at the point of demand even stronger.

Tim argued that CHP schemes are far quicker to implement than traditional coal fired plants, give users greater control over energy and resilience, and improve business productivity and competitiveness.

The remainder of the afternoon’s sessions focused on strengthening the business for CHP, through to assessing risks and securing finance, with various speakers drawn from the public and private sector. George Fowkes, co-founder of BasePower, shared the company’s view of the available market mechanisms. He compared a dozen revenue sources and their attractiveness against their risk, giving a “BasePower score” to their overall effectiveness.

From BasePower’s perspective, although the traditional CHP revenues of power and heat sales (via private networks) are still the strongest, the numerous, newer emerging revenue streams e.g. the Capacity Mechanism and frequency response, require less capital to compensate for their higher risk. Their strength as part of an investment case is growing, especially in conjunction with traditional revenues.

For a copy of the Basepower Market Mechanisms Grid please contact us.

What does Brexit mean for the future of the food industry?

Whichever side of the Brexit argument you believe, Brexit poses some serious challenges for the food industry, which are predicted to be at their most severe within the next six months to a year, according to a new survey by EEF, The Manufacturers Organisation.

Whilst it’s still early days the value of Sterling has certainly fallen and there is a talk of recession on its way.  Is this good or bad for the food industry?

On the one hand a weaker pound helps exports. On the other a fall in the Pound will make many inputs more expensive. A combination of higher volumes with lower margins will make cost control more important than ever.

One input cost that’s definitely linked to the Pound is that of natural gas. Unless consumption shrinks dramatically (due to a steep recession), a lower Pound almost certainly means a rise in the cost of energy. If energy is a significant part of your overall costs, that’s not good.

So what should the Energy Manager do?  Here are our two mantras to remember as the Pound falls and energy costs rise:

 “Know thyself”

It might sound obvious but it’s amazing how many people with large energy costs don’t measure their energy and water consumption and so don’t have a clear picture of their usage patterns and where the money’s going. As a result opportunities worth hundreds of thousands of pounds are going unnoticed. Luckily measuring and monitoring is getting cheaper and easier to install all the time and in many cases your gas and power supplier can graph your half-hourly use for you automatically. For those looking for more in-depth analysis of their site there are a range of metering options out there from single logging non-invasive clamp on meters to full web based monitoring and targeting packages covering all utilities.

 “Sense check”

After major energy consumption is mapped out it can be systematically worked through,  starting with the highest users, and sense checking against benchmarks. All factories have inefficient pieces of plant that have been overlooked for years while bigger problems are fixed, but now with suitable monitoring these previously unquantified opportunities can be paid some attention.

• Should consumption be so high for such a small part of the plant? Does this equipment need to be on all the time?
• Do temperature set points need to be that high (or low)? Does the duty/standby regime for those boilers still make sense 10 years after it was started?
• Is there any obsolete equipment that could be replaced for a sensible return?
  
  A systematic comb through the equipment list, checking consumption to value, will find the most obvious errors and savings that can be made to start you on the way to running a tight energy ship.

Groupe Lactalis and BasePower enter Combined Heat and Power agreement

Groupe Lactalis, the global leader in cheese and the second largest dairy company worldwide, has made a commitment to significantly lowering energy costs and CO2 emissions in an energy partnership with CHP developer BasePower. Lactalis has signed a Power Purchase Agreement for the installation of a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) system at The Caledonian Cheese Company in Stranraer, Scotland, whose brands include Seriously Strong Cheddar, McLelland Mature Cheddar and Galloway Scottish Cheddar, as well as several private label brands for leading UK food retailers.

BasePower, who will develop and build a fully containerised CHP system on The Caledonian Cheese Company manufacturing site, has financed the Power Purchase Agreement. BasePower will oversee the scheme’s operation, which is projected to generate 77% of all the site’s electricity consumption, supply 24% of heat usage and save at least 2,000 tons of CO2 per year. With construction already under way the project is targeted to be operational by December 2016.

Mark Taylor, Group Managing Director, Lactalis McLelland said:
“In the face of increased competition and uncertain investment in UK energy infrastructure, we are delighted to be partnering with BasePower on this project which underscores our commitment to keep Lactalis at the forefront of cost competiveness and environmental performance.”

George Fowkes, Director, BasePower added:
“This project at The Caledonian Cheese Company site is a perfect example of how energy-intensive industries like food and beverage manufacturing can really exploit on-site power generation to deliver energy cost savings. We are looking forward to working with Lactalis on their next stage of development as Scotland’s most innovative dairy manufacturer.”