Recently, Saputo Dairy Australia, one of Australia’s largest dairy companies came to Optimal Group with an urgent power challenge. They were expanding their Northern Victorian processing plant and received a notice from their energy provider stating that their electrical requirements were going to exceed the capacity of the local grid supply. In other words, they couldn’t simply plug into the main power grid. The result of this was that they would have to organise their very own, stand-alone, 4MW power station. All within a deeply challenging timeframe.
Alongside Saputo’s time constraints, there were a number of factors to be taken into account when trying to design their ideal power station. This particular processing plant is located within the town of Cobram, making it essential for the solution to have low impact on it’s surrounds. The tight deadline also required the project provider to have local representation, an availability of product and a quick response time in the event of any issues.
After exploring a variety of technologies and fuels, Saputo decided that natural gas fueled microturbines best met their requirements of efficiency, power, reliability and cost. But importantly, Optimal Group’s solution of natural gas turbines emit ultra-low emissions and provide low sound pressure level – which was much lower than competing technologies.
The final, and potentially the biggest, hurdle was the timeline. Optimal were faced with a 19 week project window, where they had to design, deliver, install and commission a 4MW power station. Further to this, the power station required high voltage work, switchboards, transformers and a 500 metre underground cable. But, as the saying goes, “pressure makes diamonds” and we are pleased to report the project was delivered on time and in full and the new plant is up and running smoothly.
As an added bonus, Optimal prides itself on having customer service teams throughout Australia to be on hand, should the need arise. They were able to cut the response time to Saputo down to just one hour, even though the plant is located four hours out of Melbourne. Turns out, help is never far away.
If you are looking for a safe and reliable power source for your manufacturing or if you’d like to know more about this project, then get in touch with Optimal Group at 1300 678 476 or visit optimalgroup.com.au.