The potential of thermal energy storage in food cooling processes in retail markets for grid balancing

Paper in proceeding, 2014

An upcoming demand for higher energy efficiency in the society requires multiple actions to reduce the amount of unutilised energy. Supermarkets are part of the sixth largest energy consumers in Germany, the food industries, and hold a great potential for increase of its energy efficiency and at the same time contribute to buffering capacity needed in grids that have a large share of renewables. A state of the art supermarket designed according to the demands of Passive House Institute has been built by REWE in Hannover Germany. Measurements are proving it to have energy consumption substantially lower than an average supermarket of the same size. Monitoring also proves a substantial amount of buffering capacity in the cooling processes. Extrapolation shows a substantial potential for buffering grid fluctuations due to delaying cooling processes in Germany especially when complementing the system with ice storage