FEATURE
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
An insider’s look at
supermarket refrigeration in SA
By Ilana Koegelenberg
I
Refrigeration solutions for the retail space are becoming more efficient and sustainable by the day
— where are we going in terms of commercial supermarket refrigeration installations and what
are some common mistakes made that can be avoided?
recently had a chat to various key
stakeholders to try and get a better
understanding of the dos and don’ts
of supermarket refrigeration (locally and
beyond our borders). Engineers, contractors,
manufacturers, and even end-users got
involved to help paint this picture of an
industry so vast, so progressive, that it is
hard to keep up with. Once again, I was ill
prepared for just how vast this topic is …
If I had to pen an executive summary on
this vast topic, it would be as follows: we are
keeping up with technological advances
and international trends, but not in terms of
skills, and natural refrigerants are the belle of
the ball for sure.
Supermarkets are among the greatest
commercial energy consumers, explains
Roy Naidoo, area sales manager at
Danfoss South Africa. For retailers, the
energy expense is second only to labour
when looking at operational expenses and
typically accounts for over 3% of turnover
in an increasingly competitive business
where profit margins average below 2%.
Refrigeration and heating together are
the greatest energy consumers. “Although
great savings have been achieved in recent
years, much more is possible,” says Naidoo.
REFRIGERATION MATTERS
Supermarkets are becoming more efficient in terms of their refrigeration systems and
energy usage.
LOCAL TRENDS
By fine-tuning the refrigeration system, great energy savings
can be realised. Taken at PnP Northgate.
The biggest trend seems to be a
move towards more energy-efficient
installations, as with most of the
construction industry. This is achieved
in many ways. Here are a few of the
trends the stakeholders have noticed
in the local arena …
The refrigeration trends, certainly
in supermarket refrigeration,
have accepted the principle of
centralised multiplex plants with
electronic controls and monitoring,
explains Merrick Smith, managing
director of Pro Active Refrigeration.
Larger stores on simplex-style
solutions are not as common
anymore. “This has been as result of
factors such as energy efficiencies,
costs, and the change in the nature
of retail trade,” he explains. Certainly
energy efficiency was a huge factor
in consideration when the cost of
power was rising at a seemingly
uncontrollable rate from 2010
onwards, and energy-saving devices
such as variable speed drives and
electronic control systems were
being retrofitted to existing systems
and added as standard to new
systems being installed.
“Consumption levels of plants
today are far more efficient than their
predecessors a few decades ago
and some credit must also be given
to refrigerated cabinets becoming
far more efficient in later years as
well,” says Smith. “In fact, I believe
that more and more retailers are
going to introduce doors on upright
display cabinets and sliding tops on
island freezers, because the benefits
of power saving are just too great to
ignore.” As shoppers become more
accustomed to this style of shopping
culture and acceptance becomes
commonplace, most retailers will
accept doors on chillers the same way
we moved from open upright freezers
to glass door freezers over the past 20
years, he predicts.
One of the most noticeable ‘trends’
is of course the change of refrigerants.
Refrigerants began to change with
the phase out of R22 and the norm
is mostly R404A (with R507 being
considered an alternative), R134A,
and R744 (CO 2 ), says Smith. The use of
COLD LINK AFRICA • March/April 2019
R404A as both a medium-temp and
low-temp refrigerant is commonplace,
more so than R134A and is possibly
attributed to how many existing R22
plants were converted to R404A. This
may be a factor in why even new
plant specifications are often designed
as R404A plants for medium temp as
opposed to R134A.
CO 2 is the talk of the town it seems
and has been in use in supermarkets
for a decade now. Many used a
subcritical low-temp CO 2 system
in conjunction with a R134a or
R404A medium-temp system over
recent years and have now made
the change to both systems being
CO 2 by having trans-critical plants
installed, explains Smith. “With smaller
retail groups also considering trans-
critical systems, we may soon have
the market split into those groups
embracing CO 2 and those that don’t
at all.”
“We’ve noticed that CO 2 has
definitely become one of the preferred
refrigerants to use in supermarkets in
South Africa,” says Maurice Robinson,
director: sales and marketing at
www.coldlinkafrica.co.za
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