Lavazza·March 1, 2026

2.5M kWh saved, $150K annual savings, $210K in incentives covering 100% of costs

A Culture of Continuous Improvement

Lavazza, a coffee product manufacturer, upgraded its West Chester, Pennsylvania, production facility's compressed air system — saving big and gaining incentives to pay for 100% of improvements.

Lavazza works hard to bring delicious coffee straight from the farm to its customers' mugs — and to do so sustainably. "We have a culture of continuous improvement," said Lavazza manufacturing engineer Josh Miller. In 2014, major renovations to their manufacturing facilities earned them LEED certification, and the company has worked closely with PECO to make energy efficiency improvements since then, including LED lighting upgrades.

A Compressed Air Energy Drain

Recently, Lavazza addressed a major energy drain: their facility's compressed air system. These systems are used in many industrial facilities, and Lavazza uses theirs to power certain processes along the production line. Unfortunately, compressed air systems use a lot of energy, and older systems tend to spring leaks, leading to increased energy waste.

Lavazza mainly relies on their compressed air system to generate the nitrogen that keeps their coffee fresh from production to the first sip. Though it's less expensive than purchasing and transporting liquid nitrogen, producing nitrogen on site is still energy intensive. The compressed air system drove 37% of Lavazza's energy costs in 2022.

"It Was a Huge Opportunity"

Using advanced analytics, Josh Miller and Kai Wong, Lavazza's energy solutions partner at Emergent Energy Solutions, saw an opportunity to upgrade and save. "There are so many run-hours on a compressed air system like this," said Wong, "that even very minor changes can have huge impacts on energy use."

The team studied the system's advanced analytics, then planned a series of incremental efforts:

• Leak remediation — Addressing the air compression system's leaks to plug a major energy drain at its source
• Repiping — Reduced elbows and upsized diameters to improve efficiency
• Eco-mode — Shutting off generators when demand decreased

Together, these system updates would result in saved energy and require much less maintenance.

The Results

These changes reduced the total pressure drop in Lavazza's air and nitrogen compression system by over 5 psi. The improvements will reduce their energy consumption by 2.5 million kWh over the next year, saving an estimated $150,000 on their annual energy costs.

PECO Incentives Make the Project a Financial Success

How much did Lavazza end up paying for the improvements? Zero dollars — the project received $210,360 in PECO incentives, which covered 100% of the project cost.

Key Metrics

• 2,531,772 kWh in energy savings
• $150,905 estimated annual energy savings
• $210,360 in PECO incentives (covering 100% of project cost)
• 5+ psi pressure drop reduction

"It was a huge opportunity for Lavazza to be more responsible with our energy use, and also just reduce our monthly spend on electricity." — Josh Miller, Lavazza Manufacturing Engineer

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About Emergent Metering Solutions

Emergent Metering Solutions provides commercial and industrial metering hardware, installation support, and energy analytics services. We specialize in electric meters, water meters, BTU meters, compressed air meters, gas meters, and steam meters with Modbus RTU, BACnet IP, pulse output, and wireless communication options. Our Managed Intelligence services deliver automated reporting, anomaly detection, tenant billing, and AI-powered consumption forecasting. We support compliance with IECC 2021, ASHRAE 90.1-2022, NYC Local Law 97, Boston BERDO 2.0, DC BEPS, California LCFS, and EU CSRD requirements.

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