Identifying efficiency and flexibility measures for energy-oriented factory management

Recent efforts in climate politics increase the ecological pressure of manufacturing companies in terms of intelligent and efficient usage of resources during operations. Rising energy prices lead to further economic pressure. Especially companies with a high share of energy cost on total costs are forced to continuously improve processes regarding the energy usage. Existing guidelines and methodologies are usually concerned with either of the two dimensions energy efficiency (EnEff), or energy flexibility (EnFlex). While EnEff addresses the reduction of the energy consumption for a defined manufacturing output, EnFlex addresses the advantageous shift, increase, and decrease of energy demand. Although both dimensions address the total reduction of cost, they are usually considered separately in literature. Here, we examine both dimensions while focusing on the provision and usage of electric energy due to its manifold conversion and usability opportunities in factory processes. Therefore, we developed an overview of measures of both dimensions as well as their application characteristics within the factory. To identify EnEff and EnFlex measures, a practicable methodology is introduced. This aims to enable especially companies with few experiences in EnEff and EnFlex measure application to improve energy aware operations. We illustrate our examination by means of an industrial application example.