Increasing solar self-consumption
Renergia analysed the hourly electricity consumption and photovoltaic production of an industrial bakery and milling site to find how more locally generated solar energy could be used and how purchased electricity could be reduced.
Context
The industrial site covers several buildings and operational areas. It already had a 10 kW photovoltaic system, but the available solar production was not aligned with the site’s largest electricity demand.
Renergia analysed hourly consumption and solar production, including an additional monitored week between 02 and 07 July 2026. Grid purchases were estimated because import and export were not measured directly.
10 kW
Existing photovoltaic system
Bakery & milling
Pastry, confectionery, flour milling
02–07 Jul 2026
Additional monitored week
What Renergia found
Renergia identified two opportunities. The existing 10 kW system was too small to cover a significant share of the site’s daytime consumption, and the largest milling consumption peak occurred in the morning, before photovoltaic production reached its highest level.
Moving part of the milling activity into the afternoon would allow the site to use more locally generated energy and purchase less electricity from the grid.
What we did
Renergia recommended a combination of new capacity and an operational change to align demand with solar production.
Photovoltaic expansion
Recommended increasing installed photovoltaic capacity by 60 kW, from 10 kW to 70 kW.
Operational load shifting
Recommended moving part of the milling process into the period with the highest photovoltaic production, shifting the monitored peak from 110.2 kWh/h at 09:00 to 87.7 kWh/h at 13:00.
Before vs. after
Aligning the milling schedule with solar production reduced both the milling peak and the electricity purchased from the grid.
Milling consumption peak
−20.4%Purchased electricity (reference → combined measures)
−33.8%What we achieved
Adding capacity helped, but the combined measures cut purchased electricity by a third on monitored milling days.
74.6 kWh / €20.10 saved per operating day.
183.8 kWh / €49.60 saved per operating day — not a monthly or annual figure.
Why it matters
Adding more photovoltaic capacity produced clear savings, but the stronger result came from combining new technology with a change in the operating schedule.
By aligning the milling process with the solar production window, the site could use more locally generated electricity, reduce grid purchases, and improve the return on its photovoltaic investment.