Coping with cold room expansion

The company wanted to extend its freezing facility and relocate it to another area of the site. While chillers, compressors and pipework were relocated from the existing cold storage area, it was critical to ensure that the ambient temperature of -25°C was maintained to prevent current food stocks from thawing.

A cost effective solution was to rent chilling and power generation equipment and Grace Foods selected Aggreko, which could offer a rapid, one-stop service, backed by 24/7 on-call engineering support. 

Aggreko's specialist temperature control engineering team conducted a site survey to design a scheme and specify equipment. This included two 750kW chillers and one 500kVA generator, plus a second 500kVA generator for back-up power. The equipment was installed outside and cooling and power was fed via pipework into eight Aggreko low temperature air handler units in the cold room.

During the course of the four-week build and relocation programme, Aggreko kept tens of thousands of pounds of frozen food stock at the desired stable temperature, ensuring business continuity for Grace Foods. 

Dave Rusher, facilities manager for Grace Foods, said: "Aggreko's expertise and service was essential to the smooth completion of our project. Their one-stop-shop approach meant that I could focus on the new facility, safe in the knowledge that they were taking care of everything required to ensure existing food stock remained in peak condition. It is extremely difficult to maintain ambient low temperatures, so it was important to have Aggreko's engineers on 24-hour call. They were able to respond rapidly to any issues, whatever time of day or night."

Ben Robinson, area sales manager for Aggreko UK, added: "By carefully planning its expansion and involving Aggreko at the earliest stage of designing and specifying the cold room, Grace Foods was able to find the most effective and economic solution. Our engineers provided support throughout the contract, ensuring that no food was spoiled during the relocation and upgrade."