Baking & Snack - August 2018 - 110

POWER CONSIDERATIONS

Generator must be sized
appropriately and have
plenty of space and a
proper hook-up to
the facility.
©bildlove - stock.adobe.com

ing finished product away from the bakery and receiving
all of the ingredients required, as well as challenges in
staffing because employees may not be able to get to the
plant or home from the plant," Mr. Rogers explained.
A permanent stand-by generator sized to run an
entire facility may seem like an obvious choice, but
it may be cost-prohibitive, leading some companies
to search for other alternatives. Smaller generators
and uninterrupted power sources (UPS) will keep the
most essential parts of the bakery operating to prevent product loss or safety issues.
The first step is identifying highest risk areas and
equipping only those places with back-up systems
rather than the entire facility. "For instance, we have
equipped our high-volume cracker ovens with UPS
systems," said Craig Zavilla, technical services manager, Pepperidge Farm, Norwalk, CT. "If the power
goes out, there could be 250 ft of product in that oven
that will burn. That presents both a loss and a fire
hazard." By putting a UPS system on the oven band,
the plant can remove the product from the oven in a
power outage, possibly preventing a fire.
The bakery also might need back-up power on computer-driven systems or freezers and refrigerators to
protect ingredients and frozen finished product. Bakers
might also consider alternative sources of energy such
as solar and wind power to supplement a generator.
In some communities, it's also possible for a facility to be connected to two independent electrical services fed from different substations, according to Mr.
Rogers. "This will ensure continued power if the electrical failure is limited to a single substation, which is

typical other than for a regional issue, such as a hurricane, that would cause area-wide outages," he said.
This actually works in the case of Mr. Zavilla's
Pepperidge Farm facility in Richmond, UT. "We are
connected to two separate grids on a power system," he
said. "If one grid goes down, there will be a momentary
loss of power, but the other one will pick it up."

Optimizing energy use
If a back-up power source isn't going to power the entire facility, it's important to have a strategy to optimize it.
"It becomes about utilizing what you have in the most
effective way," Mr. Gause said. "That means implementing a design that automatically and temporarily drops off
the freezer during a loss of power. This would allow the
generator to back current production line activity. Once
complete, production lines could come off the generator,
and the freezer could go back on."
This strategy keeps production moving without
jeopardizing frozen products.
It's also vital to know the limits of the product that's
running. Fermented doughs compared to chemically
leavened products are going to react differently. "After
about 45 minutes, chemically leavened dough products will begin to deteriorate to the point they may no
longer be able to make saleable product," said Scott
Hughes, engineer, InLine Engineers. "Fermented
dough products are a bit more forgiving and can tolerate a bit more time prior to being run off as scrap."
Despite its forgiving nature, fermented dough can
cause issues when stuck in an oven. Even if the oven

To remain fully
operational during
a power failure,
a properly sized
generator and fuel
supply will be the
best choice for a
baker, whether that
generator system is
permanent or a rental.
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Baking & Snack - August 2018

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