Steve Tremlett, Head of Business Development for Southern Co-operative, confirmed that the new store in Chobham would be their most efficient in the UK. 

 

“All of the lighting will be LED, the refrigeration systems will actually use CO₂ as a climate friendly coolant and the fridges themselves will have doors to help minimise power consumption. Power will also be saved through hi-spec insulation; and electricity is monitored using sophisticated smart meters to ensure that store equipment is running efficiently,” said Mr Tremlett.

 

Several Southern Co-operative stores have already installed LED lighting and electronic smart meters, achieving an overall reduction in energy use of 2.6%. However the Chobham store will be the first to use CO₂.

 

 

The Southern Cooperative will work with refrigeration and air conditioning contractor DCI for the CO₂ refrigeration installation. In 2011, Phil Ponsonby, Chief Operating Officer for the Southern Co-operative, opened the new DCI CO₂ test and training facility. 

 

At the opening Mr Ponsonby said, “With increasing demand for efficient and environmentally friendly refrigerants, DCI has demonstrated CO₂ offers perhaps the most viable solution, particularly in the food chain where demand for chilled and frozen food continues to grow”.

 

 

The increased investment in CO₂ has been accompanied by a growing number of CO₂ training courses. Based in Portsmouth, in the south of England, the DCI CO2 facility is the second of its kind in the UK, equipped with Bitzer semi-hermetic CO2 compressors in subcritical and transcritical operation. The first CO₂ training centre was opened in 2010 by WR Refrigeration, and is called the “European Academy for Carbon Dioxide”. The WR Academy comprises three systems in a cascade arrangement: a sub-critical LT system, a pumped circulation CO₂ secondary system, operating at chilled food conditions, and a cascade CO₂ transcritical multi-compressor pack system.