Environment

SSA inaugurates biggest project Brazilian hybrid energy

São Salvador Alimentos invests in the expansion of its factory in Nova Veneza (GO) with the adoption of the largest hybrid energy system in an industry in the country. The objective is to increase production capacity

The food industry São Salvador Alimentos (SSA) increases investments in the expansion and modernization of its factory in Nova Veneza (GO). The industrial unit will have new cold rooms, with more than 1,500 positions of static capacity. The product palletizing and shipping area will be expanded and a new product freezing tunnel will be built, with a capacity of more than 32 thousand boxes.

However, the highlight of investments this year is the construction of the largest and most technological Hybrid Energy project in Brazil, applied directly to an Industrial System. There are three energy sources that operate synchronously. One of them is a Photovoltaic Plant connected to the load with an Installed Power of 5.7 MWp, which will produce, on average, 650,000 kWh/month of Electric Energy. This volume of energy is compatible with the consumption of more than 3,000 Brazilian homes.

The project consists of three energy sources: the utility network, a photovoltaic plant and a thermoelectric plant. These sources operate synchronized in permanent parallelism. The system requires extremely reliable management of generating sources and loads, relying on a high-level automation system.

The photovoltaic plant is connected to the load in self-production mode, with the possibility of exporting the surplus. The priority for using this system is the photovoltaic plant, followed by the concessionaire and, finally, the thermoelectric plant. This will only be activated when the sum of the first two sources is not enough to supply the plant’s power.

Without the hybrid energy park, SSA would be prevented from expanding its production, which would compromise the company’s growth, impacting the socioeconomic development of the region with less job creation and less revenue for the municipality, since the energy supply in the region is insufficient.

“It is the largest hybrid energy project being implemented in a Brazilian industry at the moment. It will guarantee the necessary supply for our plant in Nova Veneza to operate without the risk of power interruption. It is very important for us to increase our production capacity, which will generate new jobs and greater socioeconomic development for Goiás, in addition to contributing to sustainable industrial development”, says the CEO of SSA, Hugo Souza.

Increased production

SSA’s estimate is for a jump in daily production at the Nova Veneza unit, from the current 80 thousand chickens/day (slaughter) to 130 thousand/day by the end of this year. By 2024, the company plans to reach a daily slaughter capacity of 180 thousand birds/day. “Our plant in Nova Veneza, opened at the beginning of 2020, is among the most modern in the food industry in Brazil. We always continue to seek constant evolution and growth in the national market, in addition to increasing our competitiveness in foreign markets. We continue to invest in expanding production capacity and implementing state-of-the-art equipment and processes”, emphasizes Hugo Souza.

The businessman states that investments began this year with the expansion of the machine room at the factory in Nova Veneza. In addition to the construction of the new product freezing tunnel, which will house up to 32 thousand boxes, SSA also invested in increasing the logistical capacity for the entry and exit of products from its industrial plant. The increase is more than 2,500 boxes per hour, which will streamline the distribution process.

We started investing in expanding the cutting sector, with the insertion of the system for automatic deboning of chicken thighs and drumsticks. With this, we will generate greater efficiency, automation and optimization of our factory”, says Hugo Souza. “In addition to ongoing investments, in the coming years we will invest in a modern and efficient automatic cutting and filleting system for chicken breasts with very high precision. We will also have a new system for scalding and automatic evisceration of birds”, he anticipates.

The SSA CEO emphasizes that the project will make the industry contribute even more to sustainability and reducing environmental impacts. “We will increase the level of reliability of the energy system and energy efficiency. With these two pillars we will have relevant economic gains, productivity gains, improvements in energy quality, gains in the useful life of electrical and electronic equipment, optimization of the load curve and gains from corrective maintenance”, he emphasizes.