Energy regeneration in automated high bay warehouse with stacker cranes

Abstract

Fully automated electrically powered stacker cranes are the most common transportation devices used in automated high bay warehouses. When high throughputs are attained, the amount of the electric energy used is high. Taking this into account, together with relatively high rack configuration the energy saving by employing the regeneration of potential energy during the lowering of the stored goods seems to be a promising choice. In the paper real life data for deployment of four stacker cranes in high bay warehouse of bigger dairy is introduced and analysed. The cranes' working cycles are determined and their energy consumption is estimated. Finally, the probable energy and costs savings are determined taking into account the regenerated energy for crane operations and lower energy consumption for refrigeration purposes.