By now, everyone should have understood that we are heading for a serious ecological problem.
For this reason, environmentally relevant laws and regulations are being enacted on an unknown scale and at an unprecedented speed. On the one hand, this is welcome, as it is high time that countermeasures are taken. On the other hand, it can be observed that many projects require improvements or should not be implemented as planned. It is the task of the associations to intervene here and to stand by the politicians as an expert partner in order to find solutions together that are both effective and realistic.
The energy consumption of commercial kitchens is one of the biggest energy consumers in restaurants, hotels or even office buildings. Technically, there are many approaches to enable climate-neutral management of commercial kitchens. The technical aspects mentioned below are probably a kind of "smart readiness indicator" for kitchen systems, thresholds for the future of catering equipment.
Basically, the larger scale in professional catering is beneficial to achieve overall higher energy efficiency in relation to food preparation in domestic settings. The energy consumption is higher, but compared to the consumption in many individual households, the commercial practicality of professional equipment also makes sense in terms of energy saving. Moreover, the higher functionality also serves the corresponding consumption.
A pizza prepared in a household oven requires more energy than a pizza prepared in a professional oven together with 9 other pizzas. It should also be taken into account that the household oven only needs to be preheated for one pizza and the professional oven only once per service.
However, the power connection in kilowatts from the grid can be high and peak power is a problem. Power plants cannot run up and down without a lot of stress. Smart grids are becoming necessary to integrate renewable energies. Therefore, energy optimisation, digitalisation and Building Information Modelling (BIM) are key to the future of professional kitchens.
Performance optimisation
In the contract with the energy supplier, power optimisation ensures a reduction of the peak power consumed with possible savings for the user. Reducing the load on electrical distribution networks is a contribution to smart grids. Our industry is working to internationalise the standard "Interface for energy optimisation in commercial kitchens" (DIN 18875) to meet the challenges of the Green Turn. Avoidance of high and expensive peaks are intended here, as the kitchen system is not always maintained up-to-date. Objectives in brief:
- Reducing the total connected load of the kitchen system. This allows more appliances to be connected than usual.
- Balancing the kilowatt quantity. Peak power is very expensive and also a problem for power plants (politicians should appreciate this point).
- Peak power calculation that switches appliances off and on for seconds only, to control peak power without negative impact on cooking performance.
Another solution would be to implement electrical storage. These will be installed in every larger building in the future anyway. This could be charged by a photovoltaic system, a combined heat and power plant, but also from the electricity grid. Power peaks would then be absorbed by the electrical storage system.
Digitalisation
Digital services and more and more network-capable appliances show that the topic of digitalisation is becoming increasingly important in commercial kitchens and is shaping developments in commercial kitchen technology. Digitalisation lays the foundation for various use cases that lead to cost savings in the operation of commercial kitchens or have a positive impact on the environment. It enables the reduction of energy consumption and could be a contribution to healthy eating.
Such digital services require open, standardised and manufacturer-neutral communication solutions. At the HKI association level, a basis for this was created with DIN SPEC 18898 "Equipment for commercial kitchens - Communication interface for commercial kitchens - OPC Unified Architecture". This standard lays the foundation for the integration of data from different devices (manufacturer-independent) into a neutral management system. Devices that use data as defined in this standard can be integrated more easily into already existing systems.
This results in numerous application possibilities:
- Communication between devices (e.g. only switch on smart kitchen ventilation when necessary).
- Communication of the appliances with the staff
- Communication of food with the equipment, monitoring and visualisation of processes
- Documentation and archiving of HACCP-relevant data (e.g. time and temperature curves)
- Provision of general equipment information
- Contribution to optimising energy use. Energy consumption should be visible, e.g. with a digital display of consumption, which can be the basis for trying out comparable cooking performances with less energy. Only through this transparency can adequate cooking performance be assessed. Other types of energy saving come at the expense of performance.
- Integration into upstream and downstream systems, e.g. inventory
Sustainability
The use of equipment is a business case for clients in the catering industry. There would be a loss of revenue if a unit were to break down. For this reason, the appliances have a comparatively longer service life and offer increased repairability and service. This is the starting point for establishing circular business models: Business models in the sense of product service systems or a "collaborative and sharing economy". In this way, a circular economy with closed product cycles could be introduced through return systems. The use is sold, the equipment itself should serve a higher purpose for the manufacturing company. This would create an incentive to take more care of the products, ensure shared or recycled use more effectively and provide commercial guarantees. The EU hopes that such models will extend the life of products through better design and smart use. If appropriately designed, companies here would make products at optimal service life and with resale potential. These would be effective means of preserving value, avoiding waste and reducing CO2.
