Pinguin have been a client of Beond since 2014; from April 15 they moved onto a Flexible purchasing contract where all non-energy costs are passed through to the customer at cost.

Pinguin were already part of the STOR (Short Term Operating Reserve) contract in which they received payments for reducing demand within a 20 minute warning. However Pinguin were not satisfied with the benefit of this scheme as they were only receiving £6,000 per annum from it.

Pinguin’s supply contract allowed them to receive direct financial benefit from adjusting their intraday consumption profile and Beond were able to advise Pinguin how to maximise this opportunity. As Pinguin specialise in frozen foods, a significant proportion of their electricity consumption comes from large cold stores.

This means that Pinguin are ideally suited for demand management as they are able to reduce their consumption during certain periods of the day without materially affecting production or the temperature of their cold stores.

Step One

Beond identified ‘red distribution period avoidance’ as the most cost effective form of demand management, as well as having the added benefit of being very simple to implement. This involves dropping or shifting load between 4-7pm on weekdays (Red Distribution Period). Large savings can be achieved by doing this as distribution costs during this three hour window are around 250x more expensive than outside the window. On top of this, additional savings can be achieved from the Transmission costs. The Transmission costs are based on the customer’s average usage between the three ‘Triad’ periods (half hour periods between November and February with the highest national consumption). Historically the Triads have always occurred between 4-7pm on weekdays, therefore if the customer is reducing their consumption during this period to reduce distribution costs; by definition they will also save money on the transmission costs.

Step Two

Beond undertook further work to see if there are any other demand management opportunities that Pinguin could profit from outside of the 4-7pm timeband. Beond recommended taking part in Firm Frequency Response through an aggregator. Firm Frequency response is a service required to maintain the second by second balance of supply and demand on the grid to ensure that the grid frequency remains at 50Hz.

• Pinguin dropped their consumption between 4-7pm on weekdays as can be seen in the graph below and saved £87,906 per annum with equal benefits from distribution and transmission savings.

• Although this project has not been fully implemented yet, Pinguin should be able to receive an additional benefit of £37,500 per annum from Frequency Response.

The following chart shows how these benefits compare with the revenue before Beond’s project commenced.

“Energy use is an area of constant focus for Pinguin. Electricity represents a significant cost in our processes and cold storage facilities. With taxes alone set to rise significantly this year and on-going, we are faced with having to find significant savings to offset the increase as far as possible. Fortunately Beond are proactive and came to us with possible cost savings options before we asked the question of them. Through Firm Frequency Response and also changes to the management and control of the timing of electricity use in our cold stores, two very different approaches, we are able to realise savings that do indeed make a significant contribution to offsetting the unavoidable tax increases.”

Arjan Buschman – Finance Director