Demand response in refrigerated warehouses and thermal energy storage.

50% of the energy consumed in food cold chain is for chilling, freezing and storage steps. For cold storage facilities, refrigeration is the main source of energy consumption with an average of 50 kWh/m3/year. A possible strategy to reduce their energy consumption is to take advantage of the variation of performance of the refrigeration systems during a day due to external and internal temperature variations. Electricity cost can also widely change during a day, depending on the local production. This strategy can be based on additional storage capacities to delay the refrigeration running period, but also on the use of the thermal inertia provided by the storage warehouse itself and the products stored. Using coupled models of the building, products and refrigeration system, potential energy savings of additional thermal storage units in a frozen products warehouse are evaluated.