Every week H J Heinz, at their Kitt Green Wigan plant produce millions of cans of soup, pasta in tomato sauce and the nation’s favourite beans. At time of writing, the site produces two thirds of the company’s UK manufactured products.

With electrical load levels sometimes running near transformer limits it is essential that precise knowledge is constantly available to ensure production levels are maintained without problems.

Heinz’s Site Services Electrical Technician said:

“with our site-wide ATLAS energy monitoring system I can see at a glance the state of load on any of the 49 transformers around the site from my PC in my office. If there is a possibility of supply problems in a particular area, I know the situation without having to continuously tour the site and immediate action can be instigated.”

ATLAS monitors and collects period by period energy usage and present load information from any type of utility meter using data loggers strategically located around the site.

Originally installed in 1997, the initial 2 Logger system was purchased to monitor the major site distribution transformers plus the Boiler House and other main loads.

As the information provided became more and more useful the system has been expanded to monitor other areas of importance including can production lines, site air use, ventilation systems, warehousing and battery charging. The system also now provides base usage information to other management and reporting systems on our site.

The Kitt Green site is in effect three factories – from can manufacture to food preparation of soups, variants, beans and pasta products, and then all packaged using 18 filling lines. All energy use in production areas is collected and reconciled against production throughput to provide cost per can produced and cost per filled can.

Through ongoing monitoring, operational standards for different large energy consumers have been determined and savings targets set. As a result, improved efficiencies have brought more product production for the same level of energy use. The installation of variable speed drives brought significant energy reduction benefits that were confirmed by the use of the ATLAS energy monitoring system. New avenues for making savings continue to be sought using the data collected and presented by the ATLAS system.

Kitt Green, Heinz’s largest food processing facility in Europe, reduced direct CO2 emissions by 5% in financial year 2006 by modifying cookers, coolers and sterilizers. The Kitt Green facility reduced CO2 emissions by approximately 13% over a 3 year period and continues to strive for further environmental benefits. By further selective targeted efforts it is believed that this will be possible.