Top Energy Management Company Wins Twice At EECA

NEWS RELEASE May 21, 2009

Top Energy Management Company Wins Twice At EECA Awards

Specialist energy management company, Energy For Industry (EFI), has won two major awards at the 2009 EECA Energywise Awards.

The company won the large business and innovation categories for projects it undertook with Silver Fern Farms and Winstone Pulp International (WPI).

EFI’s Silver Fern Farms project was also awarded a highly commended in the renewables category and was highly commended for its Winston Pulp International project in the innovation category.

For meat processing company Silver Fern Farms, EFI developed and commissioned a ground-breaking project that turns process waste sludge into renewable energy.

The ‘fuel’ is used to fire an 8.5MW bubbling fluidised bed (BFB) bio-fuel boiler that replaces an older coal boiler.

The new technology plant supplies one-third of the steam requirements at Silver Fern Farms’ Finegand site, near Balclutha, and has cut CO2 emissions by around 5,000 tonnes a year.

It is the first time this innovative BFB technology has been used at this scale in New Zealand, and the first time treated process waste has been used as a renewable energy source.

EFI also took a top honour in the large business award category for a heat recovery project that is saving Winstone Pulp International (WPI) over $2 million pa in energy costs, and which has cut the company’s C02 emissions by 6,000 tonnes pa.

While the benefits to WPI are obviously significant, the project only came about after EFI encouraged WPI to undergo an energy audit at the company’s Karioi pulp mill in Ohakune.

The costs of the audit were subsidised by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA).

The resulting heat recovery plant can deliver up to six megawatts of WPI’s process heat requirements from low grade heat that was not previously used at the mill.

It displaces approximately 3.6 million litres pa of LPG use, cutting C02 emissions by nearly 6,000 tonnes pa.

Results from the award-winning heat recovery plant are exceeding initial expectations.

EFI is a business of Meridian Energy. The company specialises in developing and supplying sophisticated on-site energy solutions with a focus on energy efficiency, enhanced environmental outcomes and reduced energy costs.

Established in 2000, the company has invested more than $35 million in energy plant at sites throughout the country.

ends

© Scoop Media