Brewery deep dives
Conducting deep dives for some of the largest brewing companies to support the delivery of short-term savings as well as a plan for a robust net zero future.
These breweries include some of the world’s largest production sites, as well as those constrained by local energy supply issues and often burdened by location and territory challenges.
What do the clients need?
These clients have already made challenging short-term and long-term decarbonisation commitments. They now need to develop credible plans to deliver against these commitments.
They require net zero plans that deliver an optimised energy usage before switching to low carbon technologies. Once a realistic potential operating efficiency for the sites is understood, they also need a recommendation for the most feasible low carbon energy supply option, which needs to consider CAPEX, OPEX, fuel availability and technical risk.
How does Verco support the clients?
These projects start with the issue of a data request highlighting all the information required for different stages of the assessment. Then a series of pre-visit calls with key departments are arranged. The purpose of these calls is to ensure that a clear understanding of the site configuration and operation is developed ahead of the site visit. This ensures the precious on-site time is spent identifying high quality reduction actions.
The site visit stage varies depending on the size and complexity of the site but typically involves a team of two or three Verco engineers attending for five to ten days. The time on site is spent meeting with technical and operational staff, walking through the process and interrogating control systems. The main objective is to develop a detailed understanding of how energy and water are used, and to identify a full range of reduction measures with actionable next steps. On the final day of the visit, they provide initial feedback, explaining what the site does well and what they could improve on, and outlining areas that can be actioned immediately.
After the site visit, our team quantifies the opportunities and populates our navigator tool – this is how we measure how each site can reach net zero. Due to our deep knowledge of the brewing industry, we are able to benchmark departmental performance against a normalised best practice performance. We share these findings with the site to outline the site’s potential, considering their configuration.
Finally, our team compiles all the audits into a group-led strategy and plan, combining the opportunities and findings in a way that allows the clients to centralise and monitor progress and delivery.
What is the result?
On average, energy reduction opportunities of 30-45% are identified. Potential cost savings often exceed >$10 million per annum. These are split between operational improvements, process changes and the implementation of new technologies. In addition to energy and carbon savings, many of our projects also have a water saving benefit.
The implementation speed depends on local factors, but a ten-day study at a brewery we visited in Q1 2024 has already seen a 20% improvement in energy efficiency. They are focusing on quick-win demand reduction opportunities. Since the audit, they have saved well over $1million.