CHALLENGE

Highwater Ethanol produces 70 million gallons per year of fuel grade ethanol, which helps reduce automotive emissions, reduce dependence on foreign oil imports, and contributes to the rural economy. Highwater’s cost of electricity has steadily increased and is a major cost of production. In addition, the company is very interested in reducing the carbon content of every gallon of ethanol produced.

OVERVIEW

An Electric Supply Evaluation (ESE) was conducted by Kinect Energy Group, in partnership with AESI. Kinect Energy is a global energy management corporation specializing in procurement, portfolio and risk management, data management, supply management and consulting and sustainability services. AESI is a provider of professional engineering, technical and management solutions to electric utilities and government agencies across North America. The project provided a comparison of Highwater Ethanol’s current energy supply to Distributed Energy Resource (DER) solutions that are cost effective, clean, reliable and resilient. Highwater was also interested in the economic viability and carbon footprint of facility-operated Combined Heat & Power (CHP) systems currently in operation. Highwater will use the ESE results to help formulate their DER strategy.