Modulating the HVAC demand of a wharehouse to provide load flexibility for charging electric trucks

The charging load of electric vehicles, the magnitude of which is expected to increase, creates complex balancing challenges for the power grid. Elevated thermal inertia of warehouses offers a promising flexibility potential that can be leveraged as a buffer in case of high power demands to avoid blackouts or notable increments in the user's cost of energy owing to the rise in the peak load. The present work investigates the feasibility of utilizing a conditioned warehouse's flexibility by modulating the indoor air temperature's setpoint to reduce the demand while electric trucks are being charged. Within this framework, energy simulation of a cooled fine storage warehouse has been used while considering the scenario of 2 electric trucks being charged (for a night shift delivery) immediately after the offices' are closed. The possibility of providing sufficient power to partially charge the trucks without exceeding the building's peak demand by increasing the warehouse's setpoint temperatures by 2.5 °C (for a maximum of 4 hours each day) has been investigated. It was found that the proposed approach enables the charging of the two electric trucks on 60% of the days of the cooling season (for an average duration of 170 minutes).