Member Matters

From Cost Centre to Strategic Asset: Integrated Energy in Food & Grocery Industrial Operations

29 May 2026

For many food and grocery manufacturing sites, energy has traditionally been managed as a fixed overhead — procured at the best available rate and largely accepted as a cost of doing business. That approach is increasingly outdated.

Rising electricity prices, demand‑based tariffs, volatile wholesale markets and the electrification of fleets and processes are forcing a rethink. At the same time, on‑site energy assets such as solar PV, battery storage and electric vehicles are becoming more capable and more valuable — particularly when they are planned and operated as an integrated system.

The opportunity is no longer just about generating electricity on site. It is about integrating energy assets with site load and the market to actively reduce costs, manage risk and unlock new value.

Designing around how a site uses energy

Effective energy strategies start with understanding load. Food and grocery facilities have highly distinctive demand profiles shaped by refrigeration, production cycles, shift patterns and increasingly electric fleets.

Solar PV can materially reduce grid consumption, but its value is capped if generation does not align with operational demand. Excess solar exported to the grid often attracts low and volatile feed‑in tariffs, limiting returns if considered in isolation.

Battery energy storage changes this dynamic. Batteries enable excess generation to be stored and dispatched during peak demand periods, reducing exposure to high tariffs, demand charges and network constraints. More importantly, they introduce flexibility — allowing sites to respond to price signals rather than simply absorbing them.

Batteries as both operational and financial infrastructure

When well integrated, batteries can deliver multiple benefits simultaneously:

• Reducing peak demand and associated network charges
• Shifting energy use away from high‑price periods
• Improving resilience for critical loads
• Enabling participation in demand response or market services where appropriate

The most successful projects treat market participation as upside, not the primary objective, ensuring operational performance always comes first.

EVs: an emerging load — and a controllable one

As fleet electrification accelerates, EV charging is becoming a material component of site demand. If unmanaged, charging can increase peak loads and operating costs. If integrated intelligently, it can materially improve site economics.

Smart charging allows EVs to absorb surplus solar generation, avoid peak pricing and align charging with operational schedules. In more advanced configurations, EVs and stationary batteries operate together, forming a coordinated energy system rather than competing loads.

A systems‑based approach — with broader benefits

The real value emerges when PV, batteries and EV charging are designed and operated as a single system, optimised around site load and external market conditions. The question shifts from “Which asset should we install?” to “How do these assets work together to reduce cost, manage risk and create optionality?”

Alongside financial outcomes, integrated energy systems also support decarbonisation pathways and improve the quality of energy and emissions data — an increasingly relevant consideration as mandatory climate disclosure reporting and customer transparency expectations gain momentum.

A simple example

Two comparable industrial sites each consume approximately 2.5 GWh of electricity per year.

Site A, with no on‑site energy assets, spends around $950,000 per annum on electricity.
Site B, with a 1.3 MW solar system and a 2.4 MWh battery, reduces annual electricity costs to approximately $150,000, delivering savings of around $800,000 per year.

With total capital investment of approximately $3.6 million, Site B achieves a payback period of around 4.5 years, while materially reducing exposure to energy price volatility.

For energy‑intensive food and grocery manufacturers, integrated energy is no longer just an efficiency measure. It is becoming a strategic capability in an increasingly electrified, volatile and carbon‑constrained operating environment.

RACV Commercial Energy Solutions