High Performance Conveyorized Toaster

Conveyor toasters are popular appliances especially for catering, buffets, and quick service restaurant (QSR) franchisees and chains. A conveyor toaster is an appliance that caramelizes and carries bread products on a belt or chain into and through a heated chamber.[1] The global toaster market size was valued at $3.2 Billion in 2018, and the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for conveyor toasters is expected to grow at nearly 6.0% from 2019 through 2025.[2]   SCE estimates that there are nearly 34,000 restaurant customer service accounts in its service territory alone where the majority of those service accounts account for over 3,000 GWh of annual electric energy use. Many of these restaurant accounts comprise of QSR franchisees that use conveyor toasters as part of their operations. The 2006 Commercial End Use Survey (CEUS) data indicated that restaurants were the second highest electric-energy intensive building type (40.20 kWh/ft2-yr.) of all commercial buildings.[3] Cooking equipment alone accounted for approximately 25% of that electric-energy intensity (10.38 kWh/ft2-yr.) within commercial restaurants.   PROJECT GOALS: The primary goal of this project was to conduct a lab assessment comparison on several common baseline and several new high-performance conveyor toasters (HPCT). The secondary goal of this project was aimed at conducting a cursory secondary market research assessment of existing and new commercial HPCT units and total sandwich sales. PROJECT EXPECTED OUTCOMES: Presumably, should energy savings be verified from this lab assessment, the outcome of this project is to create an engineering workpaper for commercial HPCT ovens. Additionally, this information will ideally help SCE prioritize activities and efforts to accelerate the adoption of HPCT into SCE’s energy efficiency (EE) rebate and incentive program offerings that also support electrification and GHG emission reduction goals. ALIGNMENT WITH STATEWIDE GOALS: This lab assessment aligns with several statewide goals and regulatory and policy compliance mandates including Assembly Bill 802 (AB 802) because the HPCT technology significantly reduces energy use (~41%) from existing equipment use conditions that occur across several large commercial QSR franchisees. The HPCT allows for higher bun toasting capacity and toasting throughput compared to existing baseline conditions. PROJECT FINDINGS: There are approximately 2,242 standard efficiency conveyor toasters within SCE’s largest QSR chains totaling to over 18.5 GWh and 3 MW of annual electric usage and peak demand, respectively. If the HPCT technology successfully turned over all 2,242 units, the savings would amount to over 7.76 million kWh (7,764 MWh) and 1.19 MW, respectively. SCE’s 2018 Sustainability Report estimates that approximately 513 pounds of CO2 is emitted for every MWh of electricity delivered through SCE’s generation mix. If all 2,242 conveyor toasters were turned over with HPCT ovens, this would avoid 3.9 million pounds of GHG emission reduction or nearly 2,000 metric tons of (CO2e). [1] ASTM Standard Test Method for Performance of Conveyor Toaster [2] Toaster Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by Product (Pop-up, Oven, Conveyor), By Application (Residential, Commercial), By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2019 – 2025. [3] Commercial End Use Survey, ITRON. 2006. PROJECT RECOMMENDATIONS: California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) EE Policy Manual (version 6)[1] specifically outlines that EE activities funded by ratepayers must focus on EE efforts to keep the cost of EE as an energy resource as low as possible. EE cost-effectiveness is determined using a total resource cost (TRC) cost-benefit test. A TRC above 1.0 indicates that the proposed measure provides more benefits compared to its costs. A TRC below 1.0 indicates that the proposed measure provides less benefits compared to its costs. However, CPUC Decision (D.18-05-041) recently modified the portfolio requirements to include a 1.25 ex-ante TRC by 2023, with an ex-ante TRC of 1.0 during the ramp years of 2020-2022. As shown in the Report, the HPCT measure is cost-effective because the TRC was 1.36, which above the current 1.0 and the future 1.25 thresholds. Therefore, an engineering workpaper should be created for both Ex-Ante claimed savings and deemed rebates consideration based on the results and findings found in this report. [1] EE Policy Manual Version 6: https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/energyefficiency/