ABB drives cut cooling costs by 25 percent

One of the UK’s major producers of ready meals is saving 25 percent a year on its cooling costs by employing a single 55 kW ABB variable-speed drive (VSD).

Saladworks of Leicester supplies 135 different ready-meal products to four of the UK’s major retailers.

The company asked ABB Drives Alliance member, Inverter Drive Systems (IDS), to recommend ways to reduce its energy use.

A major part of its process is chilling the finished products, for which Saladworks employs two refrigeration circuits, each with a duty and a standby glycol pump and a condenser.

An ABB drive was selected on one glycol pump in each refrigeration circuit, one of 55 kW, the other of 11 kW. The circuits are in constant operation, with the VSD controlled pump motor running 98 percent of the time. The direct-on-line pump is run for the other two percent of the time to ensure it remains in running order ready to take over the load if the main pump suffers a breakdown.

The VSD controlled pump motor is operated at 40 Hz, producing a saving of 25 percent of the original energy usage. This equates to a payback time of less than a year, meeting Saladworks’ target.

Tel: 01925 741111

www.abb.co.uk/energy