One of the UK’s largest
producers of pastry based
products has saved 23% on
its heating, ventilation and air
conditioning (HVAC) energy costs
following installation of ABB
variable-speed drives at its plant in
Cornwall.

Tamar Foods produces five million
pastry-based products a week. As
part of its push to improve the
energy efficiency of its processes, the
company was keen to see how
variable speed drives could help.
Inverter Drive Systems (IDS), an
ABB Drives Alliance member, looked
at the potential for savings on the
plant’s HVAC system. This involved
retrofitting the HVAC system with 11
ABB standard drives for HVAC with
ratings ranging from 15 to 45kW.

“Because we use sub-metering, we
are able to distinguish the energy
costs of the HVAC and refrigeration
systems,” says Thomas Parrott,
health, safety and environmental
manager for Tamar Foods. “Before
the installation of the drives, we were
using 2600kWh a day for the HVAC
system. After the installation, this fell
to 2000kWh a day, a saving of
around 23%.”