Cogeneration is becoming more popular at Napa County and Sonoma County Wineries to provide an alternate power supply during Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS). The PSPS’s unfortunately coincide with Harvest in the wine country and threaten essential wine process functions. Loss of power during fermentation and other key Harvest operations could result in significant damage to wine at a vulnerable time.
In part to reduce exposure to loss of power, Cakebread Cellars installed a pair of Capstone C65 (65kw) microturbines. These microturbines burn natural gas to produce power and waste heat energy. The waste heat is used in a variety of ways that include space heating, wine heating, heating domestic water and as an energy source for an absorption chiller. The absorption chiller uses the 195F hot water from the microturbines to produce 42F chilled water for space cooling. A sophisticated sequence of operation evaluates the optimum use of the 195F hot water.
The Capstone microturbines also offer an economical source of power and allow the winery to avoid costly utility demand charges.