Ecocool Reduces Electricity Consumption Using Artificial Intelligence

At the Bremerhaven location, Ecocool GmbH operates a newly constructed cold storage facility for freezing and storing cooling packs produced in-house. The manufacturer of transport cooling packaging offers its battery packs in combination with its insulated boxes. As a result, this flexible energy consumption already saves an average of 14.7 percent of electricity costs for the operation of the cold storage in the first phase. Further optimization will continuously increase the savings.

(Bremerhaven) “Maintaining our cooling elements at around minus 20 degrees and delivering them in frozen condition is an attractive service for our customers,” says Ecocool Managing Director Dr. Florian Siedenburg. “However, this requires a high energy input at the storage location.” To reduce electricity costs and the CO₂ footprint, Ecocool has recently started using the intelligent energy management software from fleXality. With the help of artificial intelligence (AI), the IT system developed by the Bremen engineers optimizes the control of the refrigeration system. The algorithm simultaneously ensures cost-optimized procurement of the required electricity for refrigeration based on a day-ahead electricity contract.

“With the help of the fleXcool software, we are transforming our cold storage into a modern and sustainable energy storage medium – comparable to a large battery storage,” says Ecocool Managing Director Dr. Florian Siedenburg. “This storage principle allows us to strategically use times with very low electricity costs for freezing the cooling packs. During times with expensive electricity procurement, we let the temperature in the storage rise slightly.”

Long-Term Noticeable Savings

The advantage of the Ecocool project: “Due to the specific nature of the cooling goods, we can utilize a comparatively large temperature range of up to 15 Kelvin in the control of the refrigeration system,” explains fleXality Managing Director Sören Eilenberger. “This allows us to achieve noticeable savings for the customer in the long term despite the relatively small storage area.”

Although Ecocool produces green electricity through its own photovoltaic system, a certain share of electricity still needs to be purchased externally. “Due to the high proportion of self-produced green electricity, we have a reduced CO₂ footprint, but we are not completely shielded from massive price increases in the spot market.” During the energy crisis – especially with the onset of the Ukraine war – electricity procurement for European companies has become significantly more expensive. In particular, energy-intensive companies now face the challenge of optimizing their energy management. “The flexibility of energy consumption, as we implement at Ecocool, is a key element of the energy transition,” believes fleXality Managing Director Sören Eilenberger. “Through the principle of AI-based energy flexibility, energy consumption is shifted to periods when energy is produced cheaply – for example, from wind and solar plants – and can also be purchased at a low price. This is a win for energy-intensive companies that cannot cover their entire demand themselves. The use of fleXcool is particularly advantageous for large cold storage facilities.”

Live Operation with a Positive Interim Balance

Ecocool and fleXality started their collaboration in the summer of 2023 and have already looked back on several months of live operation – with a positive interim balance. “We have already had several operational days where savings of up to 69.8 percent were achieved,” says Eilenberger. “On average, we are currently still at 14.7 percent savings per day – with a rising trend, as we want to further optimize the system and increase the use of self-generated PV electricity by integrating it into the control parameters.”

Photo: © Philipp Eigner