Red Stripe has refreshed the inhabitants of Jamaica since it was first brewed in 1928. Today, the iconic Red Stripe Lager is also a best seller in the USA and UK, but the Kingston brewery still produces beers enjoyed across the Caribbean including Guinness and Heineken brands.
The Management team at Red Stripe, identified that CHP offered the opportunity to improve the energy efficiency of the plant, realize significant cost savings and deliver the increased environmental sustainability demanded by Diageo plc, their parent company.
IEM Power Systems worked closely with Red Stripe and Stella Engineering to design a system to optimize energy use at the plant through the capture of heat energy that previously would have wasted. The electrical design was brought to fruition by IEM Power Systems with our experience of switchgear, controls and system integration.
The challenge for Red Stripe was first to ensure that the CHP system chosen would be viable, quickly recovering the investment in new equipment by delivering immediate energy savings and adding to the sustainability of the Kingston brewery. Once our cost effective solution was chosen, IEM Power Systems engineered a modular electrical installation that allowed for extensive factory testing before shipping to Jamaica and that could be rapidly integrated into the existing brewery infrastructure with absolutely no disruption to production.
Solution that IEM Power Systems designed / engineered
The dual fuel CHP system engineered for Red Stripe allows them to take advantage of the optimal fuel available in the market and utilizes IEM Power Systems innovative modular approach; permitting comprehensive testing at our Jacksonville, FL, facility and rapid deployment and installation at Red Stripe’s island location.
IEM Power Systems provided a fully integrated electrical system including switchgear, controls and full system integration and installed it without interrupting production at the brewery.
The CHP system incorporated the IEM Power Systems’ custom monitoring software that provides a clear dashboard of the operation of the system and the benefits delivered by it. IEM Power Systems and Red Stripe worked closely to add further functionally to ensure the brewery's management team have real-time access to all the information they require.
The Result
Just over one year from commencement of the project, the $6M, twin engine system had been installed and was fully operational; delivering 2MW of medium voltage power when fueled by Liquid Propane Gas (LPG). Once Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is available, the same plant can switch-over without any further modification and produce 3.2MW of electrical power.
Additionally, the CHP system produces steam, hot and chilled water that are used across the brewery. The thermal output of the system reduces dependence upon grid power, driving down energy costs, maximizing sustainability and allowing the export of any excess power to the local utility supply.
The LPG fueled CHP, is already reducing the sites carbon emissions by a quarter (4000 tons of CO2 each year) and saving approximately $2.7M in energy costs per annum. A further 2500 tons of CO2 per year are expected to be saved once LNG is available in 2016.