Analysis and optimization of energy usage in Supermarkets

The thesis performed in this research is focused on a particular type of energy system, energy systems in supermarkets. As supermarkets are high-energy using buildings, their energy system optimization has been investigated in recent years, with the main focus in the refrigeration system, which can take up to 50% of the total energy of the supermarket. However, the complexity and interconnections of the different systems increase the difficulty of the task. The aim of this work is to contribute in SuperSmart project, an EU project which main objective is to reduce the impact of the supermarket sector overall Europe, through the development of an ecolabel criteria. To simulate the energy use in supermarkets, CyberMart software is bring forward. This tool is used both to determine the parameters which have a higher impact in the supermarket energy system and perform energy representation based on those parameters. Finally, the design of the most energy efficient store is also presented. According to CyberMart, some of the most determinant parameters in the supermarket energy system are refrigeration capacities, plug in cabinets used, lights power, heating system technologies used and whether the cabinets are covered or not. Using some of these parameters plus other important characteristics from the store, two energy representations are performed. The linear energy representation provides the increase or decrease of kWh per each parameter, enabling supermarkets owners to compare different parameters within the global system. These representations, which distinguish between heat recovery and floating condensing technologies, conclude that the most important parameters in the global system are the temperature inside at winter and the refrigeration capacity. However, some unreasonable events appear, like the decline of electricity demand when the height of the building increases or the drop of heat demand with the rise of opening hours. These facts occur due to the high complexity of the global system, implying different connections between the sub-systems within CyberMart. Concerning the most energy efficient store located in Stockholm, the obtained results show the most energy efficient supermarket is composed by CO2 refrigeration and heating systems, and a R410_A air conditioning system. The optimal electricity use of each establishment size from large to small area is 382, 394, 390 and 281 kWh/m2*year respectively, with the highest values obtained in Supermarkets and Discount stores, due to their higher rate of refrigeration power per store area