ARRABAWN: SUPPORTING IRELAND’S RENEWABLE ENERGY JOURNEY

Customer Background

Arrabawn is an agri-based organisation with a century plus history of operations at the heart of Ireland’s globally recognised, premium dairy industry. Thanks to an ongoing, progressive programme of investment in cutting edge processing facilities and supports, the business operates to the highest international standards across all their divisions.

Arrabawn is a key processor of Ireland’s 7 billion litre milk pool. Products manufactured in their Nenagh site are exported to over 30 countries for further processing and end up in final products distributed across more than 150 countries. Trusted by some of the world’s biggest brands, Arrabawn supplies into sectors such as infant, sports and clinical nutrition, with the end goal being the provision of the best possible milk price to our farmers.

The Challenge

Arrabawn had been involved in the Winter Peak Shaving Scheme which ran from 2003 to 2012, previously enjoying the twin benefits of earning income while supporting the power system. As part of their engagement with the Large Industry Energy Network (LIEN) at SEAI, Arrabawn learned of the new DS3 System Services market and how it would support the planned higher levels of renewable electricity on the Irish power system. Arrabawn carried out an internal survey on site to identify equipment which could provide the level of flexibility needed for these services.

The challenge was to find a demand side aggregator who could work in partnership with them to deliver a fully automated response on the flexible electrical assets they had identified to participate in DS3 System Services.

The Solution

Arrabawn appointed VIOTAS after a competitive tender process thanks to VIOTAS’ ability to deliver higher DS3 System Services income levels. In addition, VIOTAS were able to provide the required control and metering solution of their VIO Link technology completely free of charge.

Arrabawn introduced VIOTAS to the contractor responsible for the control software of the chilled water refrigeration compressors that were identified for participation in the DS3 System Services market. VIOTAS, Arrabawn and the control software contractor, successfully collaborated to ensure that VIOTAS’s VIO Link signalling and control system software were integrated and, most importantly, that reliable automatic refrigeration compressor recovery could be assured post event response.

The Result

Arrabawn gained access to the DS3 System Services market with a fully automatic and reliable participation of their chilled water compressors. The site accessed an ancillary income stream without any operational impacts while supporting Ireland’s renewable energy journey.

Having developed confidence in the market and expanding site operations, Arrabawn are now exploring making additional electrical assets available to the DS3 System Services market.

“Working with VIOTAS on Demand Response has helped us on our sustainability journey enabling us to reduce energy and carbon emissions, while generating additional revenue for the business.”
Ronan O’ Driscoll, Finance Manager, Arrabawn