As one of the UK’s largest temperature-controlled food distribution businesses, Reed Boardall is committed to operating in the most efficient and environmentally-sustainable way possible. But like many businesses in the cold chain sector, it also struggles with the challenges of rising energy and fuel costs, which have significantly impacted its profitability.
As a result, it’s chosen to extend its long-standing partnership with npower Business Solutions (nBS) beyond electricity and gas supply, to tap into the wider range of innovative and bespoke energy solutions that nBS and the E.ON Group have to offer.
“So far, we’ve seen improvements in overall efficiency and reliability of supply, which is helping us towards our sustainability targets – all while saving money.” Andrew Baldwin, Managing Director at Reed Boardall
Innovative supply deal
The Yorkshire-based, family business has been supplied by nBS for around seven years. It recently renewed its power and gas supply with an nBS Flex Innovate contract, with additional guidance and trading assistance via a Flex Portfolio Solutions (FPS) framework. This allows Reed Boardall to combine flexible purchasing with comprehensive, hands-on support to help it take advantage of market opportunities to stay within – and often beat – its energy-purchasing budget.
When it comes to managing the energy it consumes, Reed Boardall is very much ahead of the game regarding monitoring and efficiency. The business has Automated Meter Reading (AMR) metering all across its site to facilitate data visibility and proactive energy management. And some years ago, the company installed Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant to reduce reliance on imported power.
However, the business was ready to embrace new technologies to further optimise energy use and support its sustainability journey.
Stronger case for solar investment
Solar photovoltaic (PV) in particular is a technology Reed Boardall has always been interested in – but the investment didn’t previously stack up. However, with the large increases expected in network costs and green subsidies added to electricity invoices, the case for having clean, on-site generated power is looking more attractive – from both a financial and an environmental perspective.
“We are currently looking at a project to install solar PV at their site in Boroughbridge, which will not only generate green electricity on site, but also support Reed Boardall’s journey to net zero,” explains Ben Whitelam, Director of Commercial and Data & Metering Services at nBS.
The Boroughbridge site in North Yorkshire spans a huge 55 acres, with capacity to house 168,000 pallets. It also operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so is constantly drawing power.
Flexible energy use generates revenue
“This provides great potential for flexibility around energy use, so we started trialling our Demand Shift service, which enables Reed Boardall to reduce power consumption during peak times and sell back the pre-hedged volume in the short-term markets to generate revenue,” explains Ben. “This service works really well within Reed Boardall’s Flex Innovate purchasing contract and can be seamlessly managed within their Flex Portfolio Solutions framework. Over the 2024/25 winter period alone, this earned them just shy of £3,000.”
Cold storage provides an excellent opportunity for flexible energy use without breaching operational quality or agreed terms with suppliers. And as Reed Boardall already had excellent site management, being able to turn down supply for a short period during peak demand periods had no impact on the day-to-day operations or storage of food, so this was an easy win for the company.
As the UK relies on increasing volumes of renewable generation for electricity supply, there are increasing opportunities for flexibility services in the summer months too, meaning turn down should be possible all year round, depending on the ambient temperature.
“So far, we’ve seen improvements in overall efficiency and reliability of supply, which is helping us towards our sustainability targets – all while saving money.” saysAndrew Baldwin, Managing Director at Reed Boardall.
Supporting sustainability goals
Going forward, there are other areas that could bring benefits to Reed Boardall and the wider cold chain in meeting sustainability goals and helping to achieve Clean Power 2030 targets.
For example, nBS also offers sub-metering to support greater efficiencies, and can assist with electric vehicle (EV) charging solutions and the electrification of fleets – having already installed 10 EV charging points across Reed Boardall’s site.
Other options that could be beneficial include exporting power generated on site, and exploring a direct supply deal via a Corporate Power Purchase Agreement (CPPA).
When it comes to further optimising energy use, embracing new innovations and saving money and emissions, there are lots of key areas that nBS can help not just Reed Boardall with – but other cold chain suppliers too.
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