Costa Farms, based in Miami, FL, began its commitment to energy savings in 2014, says Vice President of Operations Peter Freyre. The operation, one of the largest in the world, scales several locations plus a 2,000-acre farm in the Dominican Republic. Costa Farms’ owners and management didn’t like the feeling of having little to no control over a significant line item cost. Just at its Miami farms alone, Freyre found that Costa Farms had 125 separate accounts — and bills — with local utility provider Florida Power and Light (FP&L).
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Solar Panels
Costa Farms’ operation in the Dominican Republic (DR) was the first location to have solar panels installed, because electricity is so expensive there. Comparatively, renewable energy sources in the U.S. have high cost per kilowatt (kW) hours, says Costa Farms Vice President of Operations Peter Freyre, but seeing how it made economic sense at its DR farm, Costa Farms invested in a significant, 223 kW capacity install, covering the entire roof of its 40,000-square-foot corporate office building (pictured), its main packinghouse, and its foliage operation.
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Solar Panels
“About a quarter of the load of all of our electricity usage is handled by these solar panels,” Freyre says. “We worked with Florida Power & Light on a net metering agreement, so when we’re not drawing on that energy, we’re pushing it and selling it back into the grid. It does swing the economics in a big way.”
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Thermostats
Costa Farms’ energy use monitoring revealed that one farm’s electricity use actually increased at night versus during the day, which seemed counterintuitive and sent up a big red flag, Freyre says.“We found that there were fans running at night, and they were driving electricity costs up substantially,” Freyre says. “We put thermostats in place, and were able to lower the electricity consumption by 45% in that particular facility. By getting a comprehensive program in place, gathering the data, understanding where the problems are, and systematically addressing it, we really started chipping away at the problem.”
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Software
Costa Farms is able to use its custom ERP system to collect data on where and how energy is being used, and establish a baseline for how much the operation is spending and where. This allows the operation to allocate energy expenses to different functions and departments for its many farms and locations. Tracking energy use also helps managers to oversee the operation’s energy efficiency and see where updated equipment may be needed to improve performance. In this example, its HVAC management system shows how the heating and cooling system is working in the farm’s administration building.
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Fuel Usage
Costa Farms is now tracking diesel and gasoline use in on-farm vehicles like tractors and all-terrain and utility task vehicles with the help of a ring dispensation system. “The ring is an automated token or key that has a chip in it,” Freyre says. “When you put the fuel nozzle in a tractor, it won’t dispense fuel into that vehicle unless the ring has been authorized to receive the fuel.” The technology enables the operation to track the distances its tractors travel across the farm, as well as each vehicle’s fuel efficiency, and allocate fuel use and costs to farm functions.
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Light Sensors
Some of the changes Costa Farms started implementing were relatively easy at first, like realizing the old ballast lights in the packing house were inefficient, and changing them out for more efficient LED bulbs.
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Light Sensors
The operation added sensors on light switches in the packinghouse, as well, to reduce human error of having to remember to shut off lights, especially with overlapping and variable work schedules.
Instead, the operation wanted to be able to break down energy costs and be able to allocate them to specific departments and, even more granularly, to specific uses within each department. Costa Farms used its custom ERP system to collect all of the data, and establish a baseline for how much it is spending and where, pay bills, and allocate energy expenses.
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“The biggest and most daunting task of this is frankly the most unsexy part, which is managing all of the data,” Freyre says. “Getting ahold of all of those FP&L accounts and more importantly, being able to map out which accounts correspond to which circuits, lights, potting machines, etc. All of these issues are tied back, and it was a tremendous effort to get all of the data consolidated.”
While the process began with tracking its electricity use, Costa Farms is now entering into its next budgeting cycle with the ability to budget to a greater degree, down to the specific department level for all different types of energy usage.
“We are tracking energy, not just electricity,” Freyre says. “The department that we have created has a mandate to look at everything, regardless of whether it’s electric, propane, natural gas, diesel, you name it. In some instances, we’re going back and doing an evaluation of whether something is the most efficient fuel or energy source.”
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With older infrastructure that has been acquired over a number of years, some of the equipment that made sense when it was installed is now outdated, and newer equipment is much more efficient, Freyre adds.
Since Costa Farms started its energy tracking and allocation project, the operation has seen an 8.5%
015Technology Helps Costa Farms Track And Reduce Energy Costs