$25K On Offer For F&B Manufacturers

As part of the Australian Government's Energy Efficient Communities Program, Food & Beverage Manufacturing Business Grants have recently been announced.

Billed as "Funding for Small and Medium Food and Beverage Manufacturing Enterprises to Improve Energy Efficiency", these grants offer businesses the opportunity to claim up to $25,000 for initiatives that reduce energy consumption of your business.

This includes equipment monitoring that supports optimising energy costs through the adoption of energy efficiency practices and equipment. We see this as a perfect opportunity for organisations to take advantage of a no-risk, subsidised opportunity to implement (or expand upon) condition based maintenance processes. 

Whatever your project size, this funding can go a long way - with grants starting at $10k.

We've outlined some key details below to help you assess whether these grants are applicable to your organisation.

What Are the Grant Aims?

Per to the Australian Government:

The objective of the grant opportunity is to support small and medium sized food and beverage manufacturing enterprises to save energy by:

    • replacing existing equipment with more energy efficient equipment
    • installing or replacing components to help existing systems run more efficiently
    • carrying out energy audits
    • monitoring and optimising energy use and emissions
    • increasing knowledge of energy efficiency practices, and
    • positioning small and medium sized enterprises to adopt future technological advancement in energy consumption.

The intended outcomes of this grant are to:

    • lower energy costs through the adoption of energy efficiency practices and equipment
    • increase awareness of energy efficiency opportunities
    • enable energy savings that lead  to reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

The focus areas are:

    • energy audits and energy management
    • energy monitoring
    • heating ventilation and air conditioning at the manufacturing facility
    • lighting
    • other motors, conveyors, blowers, fans, pumps, and fluid distribution systems
    • power supply
    • process automation and controls
    • process cooling
    • process heating or drying
    • air compressors and compressed air systems
    • waste management.

Who Can Apply?

The grants are available to Australian and New Zealand SMEs operating within a Food and Beverage manufacturing classification. This covers organisations with an employee headcount from 1 to 199 employees averaged over any consecutive 12 month period since 1 July 2019.

What Can The Grant Be Used For?

The grants can be used for expenditure related to projects and equipment whose aim is to reduce energy consumption within an organisation. This provides a broad number of options for organisations - the full list is available here. In relation to condition based maintenance tools like FitMachine, the grant conditions cover:

  • Purchase or hire of equipment to measure, monitor and record energy use or to monitor a process, where this facilitates optimisation or energy management;
  • Purchase of equipment or components to help an existing system run more efficiently.

How Can We Apply?

Applications are open now; closing on 12th Feb, 2022.  

If you'd like to discuss using the grant for deploying FitMachine, MOVUS is happy to assist in submitting an application. simply email Peter Pennington - peter.pennington@movus.com.au.

Alternatively you can apply directly on the government website here.

 

Photo by Josh Appel on Unsplash

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