Racanaa Energy implemented its Energy Intelligence and Automation services at 16 stores of a major Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) brand in India. The benefits derived were:
• Improved electrical safety
• Proactive maintenance of assets
• Standardization of store environments
• Audit of standard operating practices
• Energy savings
We began implementing our services for this QSR brand in early 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic was at its peak. The pandemic left several restaurants vacant, causing losses, high maintenance costs, and in some cases closures for a long period or permanently. Moreover, the fixed rent and volatile energy costs only added to their financial woes. Despite these challenges QSRs, like our client, were keen on exploring ways in which they could reduce their energy consumption and carbon footprint.
Racanaa Energy worked with the QSR brand to develop a clear implementation plan to help them achieve their objectives. Racanaa Energy Services for QSR (Quick Service Restaurants)
CASE STUDY
Client Profile
One of India’s leading hospitalities operating a major QSR brand across the country. In the next 10 years, this hospitality aims to have a pan-India presence with more than 600 outlets. Some of the key challenges that had to be addressed were:
- High energy costs and low profitability
- Low visibility of asset-level energy consumption
- Reactive maintenance and high business-downtime risk
- Energy wastage and leakages
- Non-compliance with standard operating practices
- Unstructured resource utilization for energy management
- The aim to meet the Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) goals of the organization
The case study is based on the operation of 16 stores spread across major metro cities in India. This case study includes the scope of the challenges solved and outlines the steps needed to set up realistic roadmaps to achieve the desired sustainable outcomes.
Approach
Racanaa Energy worked with the QSR brand to propose a structured approach that could take them from their current condition to carbon Net-Zero stores over a period of 3 years while overcoming their challenges.
This case study addresses the first two aspects of the approach – Energy Awareness and
Energy Optimization.
Before implementing any major transformation or change in the electrical setup, we first ascertained the where, how, and why of their electricity consumption. Energy Awareness is the most essential first step to establishing Net Zero facilities.
Energy Awareness lays out the granular data related to the operation of each asset and the environment in which it is operating. We analyze this to detect energy leakages and determine the correlation between operating processes and energy consumption. Energy Optimization is the process through which we eliminate leakages and automate processes to ensure consistent operation.
What We Achieved
Our solution focused on resource optimization, asset health monitoring, food safety standards, fire hazards, and sustainability compliance. Here is a snapshot of our findings:
• In two outlets, four assets in each had their average operating power exceeding the rated power of the asset. This does not just impact energy consumption, but also affects equipment health and facility safety. Several assets like AHU (Air Handling Units), Freezers, and Chillers were consuming higher than required energy. Racanaa Energy services was able to identify few other inconspicuous assets that were significantly overloaded. Based on average loading power, it was observed that the aforementioned equipment was operating at a 10%-20% higher load in general, and at 100%-150% at peak loading power. The findings were highlighted to the client for coordination with their AMC (Asset Management Company) provider. This made it evident that using predictive and preventive maintenance techniques helped avoid breakdowns, lower repair & maintenance costs and save energy.
• We identified abnormalities in energy and operational efficiency. Assets were categorized into revenue generating and non-revenue generating assets based on their functions. An ideal ratio of revenue to non-revenue assets is 65:35 in terms of energy consumption. A higher ratio indicates the need to evaluate customer comfort, while a lower ratio is a sign of inefficiency. Both outlets had a ratio of 80:20 and 45:55, respectively. After operational compliance was performed for 2 months, the ratios were optimized to 62:38. This enhanced the outlets’ operational efficiency complete with a
centralized overview of energy usage.
• Despite having standard operating practices (especially, in terms of lighting and air conditioning) issued by the company, they did not have a way to verify compliance besides taking a supplier’s word for it. Our solution provided the company with the ability to identify any non-compliance in their existing processes through alerts. When automation was provided, the ability to eliminate human error and automate the process resulted in consistent operations and reduced energy consumption. The automation resulted in 4% to 6% savings in terms of total energy consumption, with the additional
benefits of employee and customer comfort.
• In two outlets, there were temperature transgressions of occurring approximately 6% and 4% of the time, respectively. This was significantly beyond the permissible limits according to food safety standards. Performing operational compliances resulted in a higher shelf life of their food products.
• Information derived from our sensors pointed out inconsistencies in lighting and lumen levels at each store and between stores. We made an enquiry about the cause of these inconsistencies with the client. Through our services and the standardization of design and operations, we were able to arrive at tangible solutions that ensure consistency in customer experience and build a seamless partnership with the client.
• Deviations were observed in several pieces of equipment based on their standard operating procedure (SOPs). Automation of their assets resulted in a 5% to 2% reduction in their energy wastage.
• The secondary benefits of our services were significant improvement on the revenue/unit of energy consumed, established sustainability & ESG Environmental Social & Governance) compliance on a corporate level, and setting up practices that are on par with industry peers and competitors.
Racanaa Energy’s solution helped the QSR go beyond their current landscape of “Energy Savings Commitment” by enabling optimization of their resources & SOPs (Standard Operating Processes). The by-product of these efforts was reduced energy consumption and a lower carbon footprint.
Discussions are currently underway to set them on a path towards achieving Net-Zero facility operations by preparing a digital twin of their entire QSR network and advising them on how to implement renewable energy and storage at suitable outlets.
Why Racanaa Energy?
The market has several players who promise energy savings by charging a fee that amounts to a share of it. Although this model sounds promising, it is fraught with challenges:
1. It strains the relationship between the service provider and the store when it comes to how much energy was saved and what were the real reasons for reduced energy.
2. It complicates the process of balancing monthly bills which leads to conflict.
3. The service provider often monopolizes authority on their energy savings approach which excludes the store from truly participating and understanding how it works.
Racanaa Energy believes that any process employed should focus on optimizing operations which will lead to energy conservation, consistency of customer experience, enhanced electrical safety, better resource utilization, improved return on investment in assets and of course reduced energy and a lower carbon footprint. It is imperative that the relationship with each store is a partnership of discovery with a focus on eliminating leakages and energy
efficiency.
Pindera our proprietary technology platform provides the tools for collaboration along with the ability to analyse data, drive hardware improvements and provide a real-time dashboard and alerts. Pindera was developed by experts in energy management who have had working experience in leading research labs and industries worldwide, with execution expertise in deploying and managing thousands of sites across a wide geographical range.
If you are interested in partnering with Racanaa Energy and wish to work towards a Net- Zero facility with a scientifically validated technical approach led by energy management experts, please reach out to us.
