Demand response in refrigerated warehouse

Abstract

The strong growth of renewable energy and new technologies makes necessary the adaptation of electricity network and the application of energy management solutions for the equilibrium between energy consumption and production. In this context, electric Demand Response (DR) is increasingly being recognized as one of the levers that can help to balance the electricity grid. Warehouses, by their high thermal inertia, are promising candidates for applying DR. In this work, a global system model, taking into account the warehouse characteristics (walls, pallets, refrigeration machine…) and outdoor conditions (outside temperature, solar energy flow), was developed and compared to experimental results obtained in a frozen warehouse. Air temperature distribution, energy consumption and impact of different DR scenarios (report effect) were investigated. The results showed that important parameters to consider for applying DR in a warehouse are the duration, the percentage of load (related to the occupancy ratio) and the season.