Control strategies and challenges for utilizing supermarket refrigeration systems in a smart energy context

In this paper, supermarkets take the role of active consumers that fit into a Smart Grid context, as they have the potential flexibility to shift their energy consumption over time. The paper reviews a selection of promising cost and energy optimal control strategies potentially enabling supermarkets to become flexible consumers. The strategies are categorized either as indirect or direct depending the intended market commitment level. Further, a number of associated challenges are identified that need to be addressed in order to make a proposed strategy into a viable solution for large deployment. The intent is to promote a transition towards more intelligent use of energy in supermarkets and thus to help integrate more intermittent renewables in the electricity grid.