Electricity bill halved due to co-generation plants at chicken facility
With rising energy costs cutting into food production, Thailand’s largest food exporter, Charoen Pokphand Foods PLC (CPF), has installed its first co-generation power plant.
The installation at its subsidiary, Bangkok Produce Merchandising Co, has halved its electricity bill from its chicken-making unit in Saraburi, says CPF vice-president Anurat Suthamnirun. It will soon be decided which of its 20 large production plants need modifications and whether to use natural gas or biomass to fuel co-generation power plants.
The required investment for a co-generation plant is 200 mln baht (€4.1 mln; US$6.3 mln) and with escalating high oil prices, a co-generation or even a tri-generation power plant, which includes a chilling facility, is a worthwhile investment, he says.
Before completion of its Saraburi co-generation power plant, yearly costs for electricity amounted to more than 100 mln baht (€2 mln; US$3.1 mln), which now, with the installation of the co-generation power plant has helped to save 47 mln baht (€979,000; US$1.5 mln) or nearly half of its annual electricity bill.
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