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spoiled produce, a decline in productivity.” How an ice thermal
storage system would work during load shedding is; “During
Stage 4 load shedding conditions the ice will keep the chilled
water at the design temperature of 6°C instead of the chillers,
without using any power to produce cooling. The only power
required will be to run the chilled water pumps and air handling
equipment fans. However, the pumps and fans use a fraction of
the chiller power requirement and can therefore comfortably be
supplied by a renewable source such as solar panels.”
Vermeulen says that if it is designed for such at the time
of construction, then, yes it could provide a good solution.
However, “if it is designed for Stage 2 and then, for a period,
stage 4 becomes common occurrence, the cooling will be
compromised so it has be designed for a worst-case scenario.
In theory, load shedding is with us for another year so to
invest additional capital for such a short-term benefit would
not be practical.” Muller says that a thermal storage design
shouldn’t be focused on load shedding, “the key is return on
investment with regards to energy saving.” RACA
RACA Journal I May 2020
The ice found in the coils that is melted during the day.
The size of a thermal storage system can start from 200
tons generating about 700kW. There is no limit to the size.
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