Potato chip plant goes off grid with combined heat-power system

Killingly, Conn. has what the U.S. DoE characterizes as severe electrical transmission constraints, which is why FritoLay installed a combined heat and power (CHP) system there. CHP was viewed as a way of getting near-term energy efficiency improvements, while supporting PepsiCo’s and Frito-Lay’s overall sustainability strategy. The state of Connecticut helped fund the installation and a grant from the DoE's Industrial Technnology Program characterized the performance of the system to demonstrate the applicability of CHP in the food processing industry.

Installed at the plant is a 4.6 MW natural gas combustion turbine generator, which includes combustion air inlet chilling to increase power generation during warm weather operations; a heat recovery steam generator designed to provide steam; and a catalytic emission reduction system.

The DoE ITP newsletter says more about the installation and gives links to CHP how-to information:

http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/industry/resources/ebulletin/