Carlsberg UK selects MRI Energy to reduce energy consumption by 10%
Backed by more than 150 years of Danish heritage, Carlsberg is a household name in the United Kingdom and Europe. Carlsberg UK is a subsidiary of the Carlsberg Group and is the UK’s fourth largest brewer. Carlsberg UK currently employs around 1,800 staff across 16 sites in the UK.
The requirement
Carlsberg UK required a web based Monitoring & Targeting (M&T) System for multiple plants and distribution depots throughout the UK.
The brewery was looking for a system that could import and calculate weekly KPI data against targets for multiple utilities including but not limited to: gas, water & electricity, as well as analyse production data and calculate plant efficiency.
Carlsberg UK also required the ability to manage data imports from a wide range of meters to incorporate complex production procedures in place across the brewing process. This had to be intuitive for access by non-technical users of the system.
In addition, Carlsberg UK needed an energy solution to distribute a range of use alarms and average usage alarms automatically via email. Carlsberg UK also needed a solution to display hourly dashboards at department operator level to monitor usage when the plant is running, stopped, shutdown and during maintenance periods.
The solution
Carlsberg UK chose MRI Software to manage energy usage throughout the brewing process to enable them to monitor the efficiency of their brewing processes and optimise for best performance, thus saving on bottom line costs. Activities such as generation of compressed air and excessive water usage required in the brewing industry are easily monitored and optimised using MRI Energy.
Carlsberg UK uses MRI Energy to monitor the plant for shutdown opportunities. MRI Energy’s alarm module generates range and average alarms to be sent via email to alert high usage in specific meters. The alarms are linked to production allowing for early reaction and quick intervention times to process and reduce losses. This can have a major impact on utilities costs, environmental compliance and production output.
The MRI Energy system is managed by the Carlsberg UK onsite systems team. The use of MRI Energy is coordinated and facilitated to user departments by the Energy Center Manager & the Water and Effluent Continuous Improvement Manager.
MRI Energy has enabled us to visualise and measure our utility usage against production in a way which was not previously possible; the benefits of integrating MRI Energy into our process have been invaluable.
Carlsberg UK holds a weekly meeting with user departments to review MRI Energy dashboards. The weekly KPI data is calculated in MRI Energy and compared to targets. This allows for changes to be made to enhance productivity and therefore achieve energy savings.
Benefits of using MRI Energy
Since implementing MRI Energy, Carlsberg UK has achieved a number of energy saving goals. Reduction of overall energy usage was achieved by understanding consumption loads and matching with production periods. MRI Energy has enabled Carlsberg UK to utilise the CHP plant and recover heat by matching to process demands which has improved recovered energy from the brewing process.
The MRI Energy suite is used as primary measure at the production level, focusing on software and plant improvements. As a result, Carlsberg UK have experienced continuous improvement toward their root cause analysis.
- Reduced overall energy consumption by 10%.
- Improved recovered energy from brewing process which uses 60% of site usage
- Reduced site water consumption by 10%.
- Reduced effluent cost by 16%.
Dashboards
The MRI Energy Dashboard module enables the user to bring together essential energy information, charts or tables on a single page. Users may run up to four easily interchangeable screens side by side, with each screen automatically updating every minute. The MRI Energy Dashboard has been designed to enable companies to show information on a full screen, suitable for display in receptions or in public locations.
Configuration is made simple through step-by-step screens; users are able to select the preferred layout. Users may also choose how often the dashboard refreshes; key when monitoring real time data.
Carlsberg UK use the dashboard module to highlight areas of performance which are most important to them. They utilise hourly dashboards at department operator level to monitor usage when the plant is running, stopped, shutdown or during maintenance periods.
Learn more about MRI Energy.