Energy storage for the processing sector
Turn energy flexibility into commercial advantage. Support productive output, improve profitability and strengthen your position in a changing supply chain.
The operational challenge
The opportunity is bigger than a lower electricity bill. It is about yield, quality, waste and the business you can retain and win.
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Protecting throughput, product quality and temperature control matters to your margin. Assess how energy flexibility could help avoid production compromises and support the resilience your process requires.
Turn better energy management into stronger margins. Explore how banked energy could reduce expensive electricity purchases and manage demand peaks, assessed against the full cost of the system.
Supplement grid electricity with banked energy when process demand rises. A suitably configured system can help support production while keeping grid imports within agreed limits.
Make better use of renewable electricity and build evidence of progress for your customers. A credible energy and carbon strategy can strengthen your position when retaining contracts and competing for new business.
The Sherwood FAB · Free Air Bank
Make renewable energy work
for your process and your bottom line.
The Free Air Bank stores energy for later use, helping processing businesses match electricity supply to operational demand. The opportunity is to combine more productive use of energy with better commercial performance.
Bank energy when it is available and use it when it creates the most value for your operation. That could mean reducing expensive electricity purchases, supporting production peaks or making better use of renewable generation.
Electricity can come from generation on site, supply through the grid or a blend of both. Your site does not need its own solar panels or wind turbines to explore the FAB.
The system is configured around your energy sources, production schedule, connection limits and commercial priorities.
Explore the systemGenerate | Bank | Use
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Bring generation and supply into the picture, from solar and wind to other electricity sources available to your site. Understand when energy is available and when your process needs it.
Electricity drives compression in the FAB. Energy is banked on site as compressed air and retained heat, ready to support your operation when it is needed.
Retained heat warms the released air, which drives an expander coupled to a generator. Use banked energy alongside grid supply to support process demand, manage import peaks and reduce reliance on expensive electricity periods.
The FAB stores energy; it does not create it. Available output and duration depend on system sizing and stored energy. The operating strategy must account for your supply, tariffs, storage losses and production demand.
Different processes · Shared commercial priorities
Explore the value of energy flexibility across food and drink, chemicals and pharmaceutical operations.
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Consider production equipment, refrigeration, washing and thermal requirements together. Assess opportunities to support yield, reduce avoidable waste and respond to customers' expectations on carbon performance.
Discuss your processReview electrical and thermal demand across your process. Explore how banked energy could support efficient operating conditions and reduce the need to adjust production around electricity supply constraints.
Explore your requirementsBring production, environmental control and other essential loads into the assessment. Consider energy flexibility alongside product quality, operational continuity and the commercial impact of interruptions.
Plan a site discussionLook beyond electricity alone
Heating, cooling and compressed air can be important parts of a processing site's energy demand. Discuss these requirements alongside electricity storage to assess the value across your whole operation.
Sherwood can assess whether thermal integration or other useful outputs could improve the business case for your proposed configuration.
The assessment needs to account for temperature, pressure, timing and the effect on the overall system energy balance.
Commercial value beyond the energy bill
A more efficient operation.
A stronger case for your customers.
For processing businesses supplying retailers and other large buyers, energy performance can be part of the commercial conversation alongside quality, price and delivery.
Customers assessing their supply chain emissions may ask for evidence of your energy use, carbon intensity and reduction plans. These requests can extend from direct suppliers to businesses further along the supply chain.
Making better use of renewable electricity, supporting efficient production and demonstrating measured progress can help strengthen your case when retaining existing contracts and competing for new business.
The FAB can form part of that strategy. Its contribution should be assessed through actual energy use, production output and carbon outcomes, rather than assumed from installing storage alone.
Configured around your operation
Build the business case around profitability, productive output, flexibility and resilience, with a route to expand storage capacity as your operation develops.
Request technical informationReview energy use across shifts, batches and seasonal changes. Compare available generation, electricity tariffs and demand peaks with the conditions your process needs for efficient production.
Look beyond the electricity bill. Assess whether greater energy flexibility could support throughput, product quality and yield, or reduce avoidable waste and disruption.
Compare these opportunities with installation, financing, operating and maintenance costs. Improved profitability depends on the complete business case, not energy savings alone.
When process demand approaches your agreed grid import limit, reducing output can affect throughput, quality and waste. Exceeding agreed limits may expose the site to additional charges or other consequences under its connection and supply arrangements.
A suitably sized and controlled FAB offers another option: draw electricity from the grid within the agreed limit and supplement it with locally banked energy. This can help the process maintain its intended operating rate without drawing all of that power through the grid connection.
The benefit is additional power available on site during the required period, rather than an increase in the physical capacity of the grid connection. The design must account for discharge power, stored energy, peak duration and the opportunity to recharge between peaks.
Assess electrical connections, internal distribution, equipment positioning and service access alongside current demand and future production plans.
Your energy and production choices can influence the emissions associated with the products your customers buy. Evidence of improvement can support procurement discussions and customer carbon reporting requirements.
Supplier tiers describe a business's position in the supply chain. Tier 1 suppliers sell directly to the buyer, Tier 2 suppliers supply those businesses, and further tiers extend upstream. These tiers are not the same as emissions scopes.
Scope 1 covers direct emissions from sources a business owns or controls. Scope 2 covers emissions from generating purchased electricity, steam, heating and cooling. Scope 3 covers other indirect emissions across the upstream and downstream value chain.
Assess the FAB's contribution using measured energy use, the source of electricity and production output. Storage alone does not establish lower carbon intensity, reporting compliance or eligibility for a customer contract.
Identify the equipment that must remain supplied, the power it requires and the duration of support needed. Consider the commercial impact of lost output, interrupted batches and recovery time.
Any role in backup supply must be specifically designed and assessed, including controls, changeover and operation during a grid outage. Storage alone is not a guarantee of uninterrupted production.
Your FAB's service needs depend on how it is used and the local operating environment. Sherwood uses advanced telemetry to monitor the system remotely, matching servicing to actual use and operating conditions.
Sherwood manages servicing through an operations and maintenance contract, with support arrangements agreed for your proposed system.
Request the proposed system's efficiency, design life, component replacement assumptions and warranty terms. These need to reflect the equipment, operating cycle and outputs included in your configuration.
Assess energy costs, productive output and carbon outcomes against your current operation. Include the source of electricity used to charge the system, storage losses and the value of any proposed thermal integration.
The aim is a practical investment case that connects better energy management with stronger margins, greater flexibility and your customers' requirements.
Tell us about your refrigeration demand, energy supply and plans for electrification. We can explore the requirements and where the FAB could fit.
Share your details and our team will be in touch.