Key Foods Supermarkets

The Customer: Key Food Supermarkets

Key Food Stores Co-Op Inc., founded in 1937, is a group of over 100 individually owned member supermarkets. They service the five boroughs of New York City, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Orange, Putnam and Dutchess Counties and New Jersey.

ConEd Solutions is a $500-million subsidiary of Con Edison Inc., providing energy procurement and management services. Key Food contracted with ConEd Solutions, purchasing 60 IntelliCon®-RU controls. As a part of the contract energy project, these units were installed in four (4) stores on all applicable compressors. In addition, two (2) “control” stores where IntelliCon controls were not installed were also monitoried for direct comparison with the upgraded stores.

The 60 IntelliCon units were installed at four (4) Key Food locations in New York:

• Four Winds Supermarket in Forest Hills
• Four Seas Food Corp. in Astoria
• MK Supermarkets Inc. in Forest Hills
• Jackson Food Corp. in Jackson Heights

In addition, two (2) “control” stores were designated that were not upgraded with IntelliCon controls:

• Sixth Avenue Food Corp. in New York City
• 164-05 Food Corp. in Flushing

The Challenge:

Prove that the consumption of electricity could be significantly reduced across the board on refrigeration across a spectrum of supermarkets for an extended period.

Facility: Supermarket.

Location: New York City.

The Products Used:

IntelliCon-RU - Commercial Refrigeration Electrical Economizer

60 IntelliCon-RU controls were installed at four (4) supermarkets on all applicable compressors.

ConEd Solutions conducted a nine-month field test, from May 1999 through January 2000. Temperatures inside the refrigerators were recorded periodically along with compressor cycle starts, stops and cycle durations. Data was collected at all (4) four stores where the IntelliCon controls were installed along with the two (2) “control” stores that did not benefit from the IntelliCon effect.

The Results: Energy consumption levels for the six (6) stores were compared, May to January, 1999 to 2000 versus May to January, 1998 to 1999. In addition, the control group results were compared with the four (4) upgraded stores.

Analysis showed that the electrical savings, attributable to the IntelliCon-RU units, was about 23.0%. The cumulative electric consumption was reduced by approximately 261,593 KWh, and demand was reduced by 473 KW, with no adverse effects on product life and, more importantly, with no negative impact on store operations or products stored. Installation of the 60 Intellidyne® units resulted in a savings of $28,746 for the nine-month test period, or about 11.5% reduction in total electric bills for those stores. That level of savings translates to an annualized savings of $38,320. Furthermore, demand for electricity remained unchanged in the IntelliCon upgraded stores, while demand increased about 11.5% in the two (2) “control” stores for the same period. Clearly, the IntelliCon effect does materially reduce the consumption of electricity over time.

Energy Savings:

Payback Period: “I was greatly impressed as the installation of all 60 Intellidyne economizer units was completed quickly and had no impact on day-to-day operations,” said Philip Ferrante, Director of Operations for Key Food Supermarkets. “Your economizers gave us a 100% return on our investment in their first nine (9) months of operation, and we are thrilled that these savings on our electric bills will continue to accrue for years to come.”

Final Notes: A second follow-up study was performed on these same stores one (1) year later. Performance data was collected from May 2000 through January 2001 using the same methodology described earlier.

Total energy usage for this second test period was reduced by 17.8%.  The cumulative electric consumption was reduced by approximately 389,386 KWh, and demand was reduced by 471 KW, with no adverse effects on product life. These same 60 Intellidyne units resulted in additional savings of $35,000 for the second nine-month test period. That translates to an annual savings of about $46,667.

The table below summarizes the results of both nine-month field tests and demonstrates that Intellidyne controls continue to deliver significant energy savings for years.