HEADLINES
MEADOW HAS SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCED ITS ENERGY COSTS, WITH PROJECTED ANNUAL SAVINGS OF £800K PER YEAR
LIFETIME SAVINGS ARE EXPECTED TO BE £12 MILLION
CARBON EMISSION SAVINGS ARE 734 TONNES PER ANNUM, WHEN COMPARED TO CONVENTIONAL GENERATION METHODS.
90% OF THE ONE-MILE PIPEWORK WAS PREFABRICATED OFFSITE.
| Project Title | Meadow Foods |
| Client | Meadow |
| Contractor | Industrial Cogen Solutions (ICS) |
| Duration | 6 months |
“I have worked with G&H for over a decade, and I had 100 per cent confidence that they would deliver the job to the high standard I required, and they have.“Due to the unpredictable British weather, fabricating outdoors can be problematic, causing huge delays. A key factor that sets G&H apart from its competitors is their workshop. This provides an environment where pipework can be pre-fabricated off-site before being assembled on site. As a result, the project was delivered on time with no delays.”
MIKE FARNELL, PROJECT MANAGER, ICS
OVERVIEW
Founded in 1992, Meadow has established itself as a £550m, value-added milk, fats, fresh, confectionery, and plant-based bulk ingredients business.
With rising electricity prices, Meadow needed to decrease operational costs, increase energy efficiency, and reduce its carbon footprint as part of its ambition to provide the most sustainable dairy and non-dairy ingredients to the world’s leading companies.
CHALLENGE
The manufacturing process for Meadow’s high-quality ingredients requires a substantial amount of energy, making the company highly susceptible to rising energy costs.
Meadow needed a long-term solution to reduce operational costs at its 11-acre Chester site, which runs 24/7, 365 days a year, while also supporting its target to achieve net-zero emissions by 2025.
SOLUTION
When Meadow approached ICS, an independent provider of combined heat and power (CHP) plants, the company took on its largest CHP installation to date.
To successfully deliver the project, ICS needed a trusted and experienced mechanical, electrical, and public health (MEP) partner. Based on a long-standing relationship, ICS appointed G&H to fabricate, supply, and install all pipework services, which included:
- Pre-fabricating 90% of the bespoke pipework, totalling one mile in length, at G&H’s 18,500 sq. ft. workshop in Leeds.
- Collaborating closely with ICS by attending several site coordination meetings to resolve pipework roof constraints due to it being a retrofit.
- Designing the substantial brackets.
- Testing pipework, coordinating delivery to the site, and installing it with experienced engineers.
RESULTS
In collaboration with ICS, G&H successfully delivered the installation of a state-of-the-art CHP plant at Meadow’s Chester site. As a result, Meadow will save an estimated £800k annually on energy costs. The on-site generation system now allows Meadow to capture and reuse waste heat (steam) to power heating applications within its Chester plant and provide a hot water supply. This eliminates the need for additional fuel and reduces CO2 emissions by up to 734 tonnes per annum, when compared to the previous boiler and power station setup.
