Case Study
Installing Energy Efficiency at Midlands Co-op
‘Making a difference’ to the environment
Reducing carbon impact is high on the agenda at the Midlands Co-operative Society, which is why when planning the re-development of the Oakham, Rutland store energy efficiency was key to the refrigeration installation.
Midlands Co-operative Society is the largest independent society in the UK, with over 164 food stores in the region they are the Midland’s largest community retailer. Committed to delivering excellent service and ethical products, the Co-op is a modern, forward thinking organisation with climate change at its heart.
After a devastating fire started by intruders destroyed the Oakham store, the vision was to improve the foodstore’s energy efficiency and develop one of the UK’s first ‘green’ supermarkets. The society’s goal for energy consumption is simple; reduce consumption across their business units with more efficient equipment. Strict targets have been set as part of their energy strategy to reduce environmental impact; firstly achieve an improved energy efficiency of 10% by 2010 and secondly reduce carbon emissions by 20% by 2015.
Innovation and forward thinking is at the heart of everything we do at Space Engineering Services. Over the last 20 years we have been industry leaders in the delivery of nationwide excellence in refrigeration, HVAC, mechanical and electrical services to the retail sector and the investment and development of new technologies. It therefore came as no surprise, when we successfully tendered for the refrigeration contract in the Oakham store re-development.
How we delivered for Midlands Co-operative
Like Midlands Co-operative, energy management and carbon reduction are important issues for our business, with an active energy management team helping customers reduce their carbon footprint, we feel we are specialists in the field. Hired as the refrigeration contractor, our role in the re-development was to fully manage, install and commission the refrigeration systems for the store.
With only 12 months to complete the entire re-build and under 3 ½ months for the refrigeration installation, our projects department worked relentlessly to deliver this project to the agreed programme.
To achieve the Co-op’s objectives of reducing energy consumption in their stores, we installed a CO2 cascade system with a glycol circuit that pumps the natural refrigerant to the cases and coldrooms. The key benefits of a CO2 cascade system is zero global warming and exceptionally low energy consumption.
We also implemented heat recovery to re-distribute waste heat from the refrigeration system to the under floor heating, providing approximately 250kW of heating. Localised cooling is provided to the back office areas by the pump glycol circuit chilled from the CO2 system.
To improve the efficiency of the cold rooms we used LED lighting as it uses much less energy than traditional lamps and offers an improved performance in cold temperatures.
As a further energy efficiency measure a CO2 leak detection system was installed. Utilising infrared absorption technology that pumps air samples into infrared sensors the system protects the external plant, plant room, coldrooms, warehouses and display cases. Working as a two staged alarm function, for low concentration leaks a light beacon is triggered locally and the location and level of the leak is indicated on the store managers panel and remote monitoring system.
For more serious leaks in the plant room, where concentration exceeds 3% v/v an alarm sounds and the emergency ventilation system is activated at full speed to reduce the concentration of CO2 gases in the air. In the sales area and warehouses, a more serious leak sounds the fire alarm so that the store can be evacuated. These measures enable the store to deal with leaks quickly and efficiently.
Achieving Energy Savings
The store successfully opened on 29th October 2009 and has since achieved a 20% energy saving based on initial figures, when compared to performance data of the previous development, despite a 50% increase in the refrigeration meterage. Considering the refrigeration energy consumption for the Midlands Co-op food retail stores are 60% of the total energy bill this is a fantastic achievement.
Oakham is now operating as the Midlands Co-operative flagship store and what an example it is. Energy efficiency strategies like these implemented at Oakham are being used for future Midlands Co-operative store refurbishments and developments.
This is just one example of how Space Engineering Services can deliver for your business. If you require further information or would like to find out how we can deliver on for your project for your business, please contact us on:
[t] 0845 602 0670