Case Study

Pepsico-Gatorade

Pepsico-Gatorade’s production facility in Mountain Top, Luzerne County, is one of Pennsylvania’s latest businesses to install a natural gas-fired Combined Heat and Power (CHP) unit to better manage their energy needs.

Featured at the April 24, 2016, “Think About Energy” Briefing, the facility – which employs 250 and produces 43 million cases of Gatorade, G2 and Lifewater each year – worked with Pennsylvania natural gas distribution company UGI Utilities to install the CHP unit in mid-November 2016.

Designed to work with an existing heat recovery system installed in 2015, the CHP unit is expected to make the plant one of the most energy efficient in the Pepsico system.

“I’m hoping we set some efficiency records here,” said Andy Lempera, sustainability engineer for Pepsico and project manager. “Pepsico has sustainability goals which include reducing greenhouse gas emissions in all manufacturing. Using CHP to generate electricity and capture the waste heat for our thermal needs is a key part of achieving those goals.”

Lempera estimates the CHP unit provides nearly 80 percent of the Gatorade plant’s electricity needs and 30 percent of the plant’s thermal needs.

UGI Utilities Relationship Manager Joe Bauman, who approached the company with the idea of installing CHP, said, “I look for opportunities where it makes sense for the customer to invest in this technology. This project helps Pepsico achieve its sustainability goals, it makes the jobs here more secure, and it strengthens the relationship between UGI and its customer.”

The $3.3 million project is a partnership between UGI, the Pepsico corporate office, the local Gatorade plant and electricity supplier PPL. The project included a grant from PPL and a 10 percent investment tax credit from the federal government.