During the annual shutdown electric options were reinstated at the Canterbury plant based near Ashburton.
The site transition from coal to electricity will bring additional electricity usage of 14GWH and will remove 2800T of coal and 5600MT of carbon a year.
This is the first step in a journey away from fossil fuel-fired boilers at the Ashburton site, a process that has been sped up, thanks to a partnership with Meridian Energy, Anzco Foods general manager operations Darryl Tones says.
Meridian launched a programme to support businesses to reduce their emissions from fossil fuel-fired industrial boilers, the second largest source of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions.
“Anzco Foods is committed to reducing its carbon footprint and we are delighted to be working with Meridian in a long-term partnership to help us speed up our decarbonising process,” Tones said.
“Transitioning away from coal to electricity requires significant capital investment, so Meridian’s decarbonisation programme helps make the transition stack up commercially as well as environmentally.”
He says the Ashburton site is the company’s largest processing site with the largest footprint so it is also the site where Anzco can make the biggest impact.
The site had retired electric boilers that were able to be recommissioned resulting in the shift from coal to electricity.
“This reduction in reliance on fossil fuels, together with the long-term Meridian partnership, has meant we can make this move sooner than initially planned,” he said.
Anzco has more initiatives planned on site that will further reduce its carbon footprint.
These are scheduled for next year following further work and investment.
