Vertical Transportation Demand Response: Cost of Lost Customer Hours

Abstract

Vertical transportation systems are designed to enhance the people flow. The power consumption of escalators and elevators depends on applied technology, control strategies and passenger flow. Vertical transports are often equipped with energy saving technologies and are eligible for demand response (DR). DR for vertical transports results in induced costs related to increased passenger travel and waiting times. In this article, we analyze the cost of DR by means of speed reduction for elevators and escalators in terms of lost customer hours. We use modeling approaches to simulate passenger time delays and aggregated power consumption of a large number of escalators and elevators. The results further indicate positive applicability of such strategy in vertical transportation.

A machine learning approach to modelling escalator demand response

“…It demonstrated that mean reduced power consumption as the result of DR depends on the passenger arrival rates and, thus, the time of the day. Article [12] introduced the costs of escalator DR in terms of increased passengers queuing and travel times.…”

“…Earlier research [11,12] revealed that escalator DR is a viable option for additional power procurement together with the already established methods. However, DR with escalators provided with speed reduction comes at a cost of slowing the passengers.…”

“…Intermittent-operating escalators are equipped with a Variable-Speed Drive (VSD), which enables energy saving during times when there is no passenger flow. Majority of the newly installed escalators are equipped with the VSD and, since most of the power consumption in the escalator is related to overcoming friction [9,10], decreasing the speed of the escalator can provide power reduction [11,12].…”