Projects
McCain Foods

significant savings through transformer replacement

McCain Foods is the UK subsidiary of McCain Foods Limited, a Canadian multinational founded in 1957. McCain entered the UK market in 1965 and opened its first UK production facility in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, in 1968. The company is renowned for its frozen potato products, including chips (fries), wedges, and other potato-based offerings. It runs several facilities across the UK for its production, storage, and operations. As the UK's largest purchaser of British potatoes, McCain collaborates with over 250 local potato growers and supports the Red Tractor Assurance Scheme, ensuring quality and sustainability in its supply chain. We supplied these facilities with eleven distribution transformers, all of which are low-loss amorphous transformers that exhibit extra carbon, waste and financial savings.

Sector	Food & Beverage
End User	McCain Foods
Location	Scarborough, Wolverhampton, and Peterborough
Scope of Work	Five Wilson e3 Ultra Low Loss Amorphous® Transformers (1MVA, 1250kVA and 2MVA) Six Wilson e2 Super Low Loss Amorphous® Transformers (1.5MVA, 1.6MVA, 2MVA & 2.5MVA)

Transformer Replacement Project

McCain was founded on “good and responsible” business ethics. To this date, McCain continues to live by these ethics and put sustainability at the center of everything they do, including improving the energy efficiency of their manufacturing plant and infrastructure. The replacement of an existing nine-year-old 1.6MVA 11kV/433V CRGO transformer (manufactured in 2006) with a 2MVA 11kV/415V Wilson e2 amorphous transformer (manufactured in 2015, but with superior energy efficiency), combined with a reduction in supply voltage, delivered energy savings of ~273,00kWh annually.

Energy savings from voltage reduction

The Scope

The purpose of the study was to determine the energy savings associated with replacing the existing CRGO transformer with an amorphous core transformer. The following activities have been undertaken:

14-day detailed load profiling of the ‘Existing’ supply via the 1.6MVA CRGO supply before replacement
14-day detailed load profiling of the ‘Replacement’ 2MVA Wilson e2 Super Low Loss amorphous core transformer
Non-invasive inspection of existing loads and identification of voltage-dependent loads
Non-invasive assessment of PFC and associated harmonic interaction
Power quality assessment based on key characteristics of G5/4-1, EN 50160 & ESQCR Regulations 2002
Calculation of voltage management related savings
Calculation of transformer loss reduction (NLL + LL)

Our Findings

The measurements show that installing a Wilson e2 Super Low loss Amorphous Transformer, combined with voltage reduction, has reduced the kWh used. The combined benefits (at Tap 3) are:

2.6% energy reduction
72,949 kWh reduction pa
£21,835 of energy-saving pa
12tCO2e avoided pa
CCL reduction of around £673 pa
Approximate total saving £22,500 pa

22500

annual savings

72949 kWh

annual reduction

Payback Calculator

Europe’s most efficient distribution transformer

Upgrading to Wilson e4 Ultimate Low Loss Amorphous® Transformer provides you with substantial carbon, energy and financial savings. Use our payback calculator to find our potential savings.

Your Exisiting Transformer Rating (kVA)