Many electric utilities are exploring various pricing strategies to attract and retain customers as we move forward toward deregulating the industry. One electric rate structure that has gained a great deal of interest is real-time pricing (RTP). Refrigerated cold storage warehouses are consumers of a large volume of electricity. Research is needed which will investigate operating strategies to minimize energy costs associated with the operation of industrial refrigeration systems serving refrigerated warehouses. Potential operating strategies to minimize energy costs in warehouse applications while operating under RTP rate structures is needed. Design criteria should be established to give the ASHRAE community guidance in sizing refrigeration systems for cold storage warehouses and owner’s guidance in operating existing systems under real-time pricing structures.

The objective of this research project is to develop and evaluate appropriate refrigeration system control strategies that utilize stored products as a thermal energy storage media to minimize energy costs for refrigerated warehouses operating under real-time pricing rate structures.