Reefers are refrigerated containers commonly used for transporting perishable goods\nsuch as meat, fish, vegetables and fruit. Nowadays, reefers are responsible for 40% of\nthe total energy consumption of container terminals, when connected to the\nelectricity grid on shore. Every time when a large number of reefers is plugged-in\nafter arrival, peaks in energy consumption occur. As container terminals purchase\nenergy using a demand-based fee, exceeding the reserved capacity during peak\ntimes increases the energy costs of the terminal significantly. So far the literature has\nnot dealt with the root causes of peak energy consumption of reefers, or ways to\nreduce these peaks. The aim of this paper is to identify the root causes and to\nquantify their importance. We use data of energy consumption of reefers at a large\ncontainer terminal, over the period of 1 year. In order to identify the importance of\nfactors, we apply a sequential multiple regression analysis approach with backwards\nfeature selection. Variations in energy demand are explained for 77% by the arrival\npattern of containers, for about 5% by dwell time and for 2% by other factors, such\nas container temperature at plug-in. Promising approaches to reduce peak energy\nconsumption of reefers includes dynamic pricing, energy management and specific\npeak shaving strategies.
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