Energy Efficiency Improvements in a Microbrewery in South Africa

The processes involved in brewing beer have been observed to be highly energy intensive. Breweries in particular may consume up to 8250 kWh per month. In addition, approximately 0.43 kWh is required to produce one liter of beer in large breweries, while energy usage in microbreweries are estimated to be significantly higher. A walkthrough energy audit revealed that a craft brewery located in Bloemfontein, South Africa, required approximately 0.65 kWh of electrical energy to produce one liter of beer. This equates to approximately 5.2% of the production costs involved, substantiating the need for energy management; this makes energy efficiency improvement an important way to reduce costs, especially in times of high energy price volatility. In South Africa, craft beer produced by these breweries became highly popular in recent years. The heating and cooling processes involved in the production of craft beer could be controlled based on the time-of-use (TOU) tariff to reduce the energy consumption. This may be achieved by shifting loads from peak demand to off-peak or standard time. Renewable energy source technologies can also be used to reduce the energy consumption; however, the renewable energy systems show a common disadvantage of not always meeting the energy demand during certain climate conditions. Therefore, in this paper, a methodology for reducing energy usage and associated costs is proposed to evaluate various energy management initiatives for prospective implementation.