1 | Challenge :
Lower energy costs despite usage in frozen food sector
Germanys market leader in the frozen food sector wanted to save energy when charging his industrial trucks in the future. Added to that, a better overview over each battery and the charging status should be possible. HOPPECKE had the right solution for the customer.
Sunday afternoon, sunshine and 25°C, the children are playing in the garden. What could be better than a refreshing ice cream? The sausages are also defrosted for the barbecue later - a perfect summer day.
The fact that almost every food can be bought in frozen form at affordable prices today is not a matter of course. Depending on the cooling technology used, the size of the logistics centre and the outside temperatures, up to several thousand kWh of electricity are consumed per day in the deep-freeze logistics centres that are necessary for this. Due to rising energy prices, reducing electricity consumption in such centres is becoming increasingly important.
At the customers site, 120 industrial trucks were in use, most of whose batteries were charged in 10°C heated charging stations with battery-changing devices. The problem was that the charging stations were equipped with a wide variety of chargers and charging technologies. There was no central battery-changing station; it was therefore impossible to determine which batteries were in a good state of charge and in regular use, and which were not.
The customer´s goal was to find an affordable and sensible solution for tidy, clear and space-saving charging stations, as well as energy-efficient and long-lasting batteries.
2 | Solution :
Night power and new chargers
To detect potential in enlarging the energy efficiency, the project started off with an inventory control. Together with the customer, inefficient charging technologies were identified and replaced with the innovative HOPPECKE trak | charger HF premium chargers.
Compared to conventional 50 Hz chargers, the usage of trak | charger HF premium chargers saves CO2 emissions and up to 14% energy with each charging process. At some plants, the weekly plans were programmed, so that the batteries are charged overnight with the cheaper night power.
The chargers were mounted on the wall to save space and the deep-freeze characteristic was optimised so that the batteries can be charged gently even in a low temperature window. The chargers were pre-equipped for the smart trak | monitor easypick system. Installed standard roller beds simplify the space-saving battery change.
trak | uplift air batteries with an uncoated underside were use, enabling a smooth and clean battery change. A deep-freeze tubing also ensures long-lasting use under extreme temperatures.
The trak | monitor easypick system is a battery monitoring tool that allow the user to use the battery pool evenly while controlling compliance with charging ties and cooling phases of the batteries. The combination of charger and monitoring system has resulted in a 30% reduction in energy costs and a reduced energy requirement.
Thanks to the solution developed by HOPPECKE, the customer can now sav approximately 150,000 kWh of energy per year for the 100 chargers. Its CO2 emissions have been reduced by approximately 20% and its energy costs have been cut by € 50,000 per year. The payback period of the delivered solution is 3 years; the customer saves money from the fourth year onwards with the new chargers.In the future the customer would like to optimise further charging stations together with HOPPECKE.
3 | Products:
