Wisynco to cut energy bill by US$1m with new plant
Published:Wednesday | December 18, 2019 | 12:00 AM
Beverage maker Wisynco is projecting savings in its energy bill of US$1 million or J$135 million per year from the commissioning of its two-megawatt liquefied natural gas, LNG, plant in Lakes Pen, St Catherine.
Wisynco already has the LNG engine on its property and has contracted New Fortress Energy for the gas installation and provision of the LNG. The plant is expected to become operational by February 2020.
“One the most exciting things for us is the commissioning of our cogeneration plant. That cogeneration plant comes at an investment of about US$2.7 million and we expect it to drive down our cost of power by about four cents per kilowatt-hour, and based on the kilowatt hours that we use at Wisynco we expect savings of approximately US$1 million per year,” Andrew Mahfood, chief executive officer of the listed company, told its shareholders during its second annual general meeting last week.
Mahfood anticipates that the plant will come with a payback period for the investment of three years.
Over the past three months, Wisynco has expanded its beverage line of products, partly aimed at hitting a 10 per cent target in foreign sales as well as meeting local demand. The conglomerate’s latest addition to the ‘Wata Wid Wow’ portfolio spans the Sparkling Cranberry Wata, Sparkling Cran-Grape and Cran-Melon. The products are bottled in 300ml and 500ml sizes.
For its quarter ended September 30, 2019, Wisynco’s administration expenses, which includes its electricity bill, jumped 28 per cent to $333.6 million from $259.1 million.
“We are extremely excited about getting this investment on stream. It’s taking us a little longer than we expected but it’s coming to fruition,” Mahfood said.
It’s not the first time that Wisynco has invested in a system to reduce its energy bill. In 2011, the company acquired a one-megawatt solar plant which was destroyed by fire in the warehouse in 2016.
Then in 2017, the company announced that it was looking at additional options and decided to invest in the LNG plant. The energy-savings facility is expected to power its chilled water system while producing carbon dioxide to effectively create the bubbles in its soft drinks.
It would also include an expanded biological waste-water treatment plant to purify water used to clean the equipment before it is released into the environment.