Americold's Power Outage Strategy
Americold's cold storage facilities can maintain safe temperatures for up to a week during a power outage, thanks to advanced engineering and strategic planning
Americold's senior vice president of facilities and engineering, Brian Dunn, revealed that the company's cold storage facilities can maintain safe temperatures for up to a week during a complete power outage. This resilience capability has already been deployed during hurricane-related blackouts across multiple sites, with the company's thermal holding capacity stemming from the advanced engineering of its buildings.
Engineering and Thermal Mass
The walls and roofs of Americold's facilities are insulated roughly 15 to 20 times more than a household freezer, using insulated metal panels and heavily engineered roof structures. This accumulated thermal mass functions like a battery, allowing operators to pre-cool facilities ahead of a storm, lock down the doors, and then monitor internal temperatures remotely even when the grid is down.
According to Dunn, the thermal principle underpins Americold's AI-driven refrigeration strategy, which monitors real-time grid conditions, predicts demand-response events and peak pricing windows, and pre-cools buildings in advance so compressors can coast when electricity rates spike. For example, the AI system identified an evaporator unit that was running continuously but delivering minimal cooling benefit, and reduced its runtime from roughly 100% down to about 5%.
Energy Efficiency and Cost Savings
Energy costs are rising regardless of efficiency gains, with U.S. electricity prices increasing approximately 5% last year and projected to rise another 5% annually for at least the next two years. To offset this pressure, Americold has enrolled about 175 facilities in the Global Cold Chain Alliance's Energy Excellence program, which benchmarks and shares best practices across the industry. The company is also deploying refrigeration AI to cut compressor runtime and reduce peak-demand electricity costs.
The following table compares some key figures related to Americold's energy efficiency efforts:
| Category | Description | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Insulation | Times more insulated than a household freezer | 15-20 |
| Energy Price Increase | Percentage increase in U.S. electricity prices last year | 5% |
| Projected Energy Price Increase | Percentage increase in U.S. electricity prices for the next two years | 5% |
| Number of Facilities | Number of facilities enrolled in the Energy Excellence program | 175 |
Future Opportunities and Challenges
Looking ahead, Dunn identified pharmaceuticals and other temperature-sensitive products as a growing opportunity alongside Americold's predominantly food-focused book of business. The company handled COVID-19 vaccine storage and remains in active discussions with manufacturers across additional cold-chain-eligible categories. Personalized biologics such as mRNA-based therapies could represent further demand if those products reach commercial scale. According to the source, Freightwaves, Americold's advanced engineering and strategic planning have enabled the company to maintain its position in the cold storage market, despite challenges such as rising energy costs and excess capacity.
