Craft Brewing - Brewery Energy Management

The price of each kilowatt-hour or decatherm of natural gas used fluctuates based on regional supply and demand. By taking the long view of market price changes Titan Energy has helped breweries avoid utility rate hikes, save on annual operations costs, fix their energy costs for long periods of time.

By conducting an upfront audit and analysis of your brewery’s usage, utility demand, and overall consumption, we can give you peace of mind that your brewery is set up for success. As a 100% supplier neutral energy consultant that prides itself on transparency, Titan Energy ensures that all pricing is presented apples to apples and that no-cost component is left unexplained.

Backed by performance data, we guide you through your brewery through its annual contract and market analysis. Titan Energy’s robust energy data management software keeps you up to date on energy spend and trends. Our work continues by monitoring your accounts for billing discrepancies, arranging recurring check-ins, and providing regular market updates.

As part of a holistic energy management plan, your brewery should explore if solar power is a good fit for your facility. If the sun grows the hops and the sun grows the grain, why not have the sun run your brewery?

If you have roof space or a parcel of land owned by you, on-site solar power would be a great investment as you can reap tax benefits and lock in low electricity costs with quick returns on capital. If you are not interested in outlying cash, Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) are very popular in the renewable energy industry. It allows you to generate solar power at a low electricity rate, not have to deal with any ownership or maintenance and reap the benefits of solar power.

In a growing number of states that have high utility costs, community solar is growing as an option for many breweries that lease the property or are in a small space. Community solar is a program where renewable solar power is produced off-site in the same utility zone and your brewery is allotted a certain percentage of the overall power. With these programs, there are guaranteed savings and no equipment needed.

Your brewery has invested in top of the line equipment including fermenters, kettles, bottling and canning lines, cooling and refrigeration systems, waste treatment systems, compressors, and steam boilers. 

While using a lot of energy, equipment may also produce waste. Boiling wort for the beer accounts for 25 to 35 percent of your brewery’s overall energy consumption. The exterior of the boiler and some fittings may produce leaks that allow steam to escape and heat the manufacturing room instead of perfecting your beer. By sealing leaks you can increase the operational efficiency of the equipment. 

On either side of the brewing process, refrigeration is important to ferment the beer and then, in the end, keeping it fresh for consumers. It is important to ensure the cooling equipment is leak-free and running to 100 percent efficiency. Refrigeration also uses a lot of power, making up about 35 percent of electricity consumption. It is important to know the equipment’s energy consumption ratio, meaning that for most refrigeration equipment, increasing the temperature of the equipment can reduce the energy cost between 1 and 2 percent.

Whether you’re building a new brewery or retrofitting your building, there can be utility rebates in place to incentivize the installation of certain low energy use fixtures. Ballast bulbs, interior and exterior lighting, occupancy sensors and building control incentives may be available. Depending on the current fixtures and your utility area, by replacing inefficient lighting you can reduce energy costs up to 30 percent.

Rebates are available in many states on air-conditioning, heat pump systems and heat pump water heaters to lower the long-term costs and make the financing for these updates more attractive. Titan Energy will walk you through what is available in your geography based on your brewery’s needs.