College Point Pepsi plant a power producer

Survivalists are not the only ones eager to live off the electrical grid. Many manufacturers would prefer to produce their own power as a way to cut costs.

PepsiCo, for example, received $1 million from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to cover about half of a $2.35 million combined heat and power system that it installed last year in its 160,000-square-foot bottling plant in College Point, Queens. It is one of at least 45 companies, including The New York Times, that have received such grants in the last half decade.

To slash its electric consumption, Pepsi installed four 400-kilowatt generators powered by natural gas that produce about 80 percent of the electricity needed to run the filling, packaging and processing machines. The price of natural gas, which was already being used to run the plant’s boilers, is relatively stable, unlike electricity, which shoots up during peak times, like summer days.

Not coincidentally, summer days are when the bottling plant is busiest.

By producing its own energy, the company is also eligible for a New York City program that pays Pepsi about 4 cents for every kilowatt-hour that it produces on-site.

In Queens, Pepsi Is Bottling Soda Under Its Own Steam