By Eamonn Ryan
At the recent GCCA Africa Conference, a highly engaging panel discussion tackled two of the most critical topics facing cold storage operators across the continent: energy management and fire safety. Moderated by Shane Brennan, part of the global leadership team at GCCA, the panel brought together a diverse group of experts:
- Petrie van der Merwe, senior mechanical engineer at Energy Partners Refrigeration
- Roy Weghorst, head of regulatory affairs – fire: Kingspan Group
- Richard Doyle, managing director of DDR Group
- Jan-Cornell van Ekris, Boltrics commercial director
This is part six of a six-part series.
- Jan-Cornell van Ekris: Balance labour and energy costs and invest in systems that allow ongoing optimisation. “This topic is only going to grow in importance.”
- Petrie van der Merwe: Don’t treat your refrigeration system as “fit and forget.” Continuous monitoring and optimisation are essential to unlock the performance your capex paid for.
- Richard Doyle: Maintain alignment between the original design intent and long-term operations. “A project doesn’t end at commissioning – that’s when the real work begins.”
- Shane Brennan closed the session by thanking the panellists and reiterating the core message: energy efficiency is not just a design challenge, it’s an operational mindset. “From selecting the right insulation to managing door movements and simulating lifetime costs, making every degree count requires collaboration between engineers, facility managers and operations teams alike.”
With the demand for cold chain capacity growing across Africa, these lessons offer a path toward resilient, cost-effective and sustainable infrastructure, ensuring that the region’s facilities are not just built to last, but built to perform.