No Cost Energy Technical Support Services Available Specifically for Food Processors

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The California Institute of Food and Agriculture Research (CIFAR) at the University of California, Davis is offering free access to U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) technical support services. The DOE Best Practices program is designed to offer detailed on-site Energy Systems Assessments (ESAs) conducted by DOE qualified specialists. These are rigorous evaluations that help facilities identify potential cost effective energy savings. A number of food processors have requested ESAs in recent years and have been very satisfied with the expertise of the engineers and the information obtained from the process, and the potential energy savings identified by the assessments. Currently CIFAR is offering the free ESAs to the food industry for the following systems:

• Compressed air, pumps, motors, and fans.
• Steam systems and process heat systems.

The ESA specialists and the local energy utility staff work together to schedule the site visit, collect primary data, and attend the on-site kickoff meeting. The specialists conduct a one-day site assessment and issue a final report with recommendations to achieve resource conservation and efficiency improvements. During the ESAs the company staff is encouraged to shadow the ESA specialist to learn how to best monitor and collect data, and to understand how to adopt conservation and efficiency measures. This is a great program and CLFP urges members to consider participating.

For more information or to request an ESA, please contact Ricardo Amon at ramon@ucdavis.net.

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