FlexEnergy - A Prosumer-based Approach for the Automated Marketing of Manufacturing Companies’ Energy Flexibility

The transition to renewable energy sources and the need to address climate change has significantly changed the energy landscape. However, the fluctuating nature of renewables and increased electricity price volatility pose challenges to power grids and companies. This study focuses on energy flexibility achieved through industrial demand-side management (DSM) as a solution. Information technology (IT) and standardization are vital for enabling energy flexibility by optimizing energy consumption and facilitating interoperability. Digital energy platforms allow energy-intensive industries to optimize energy usage, thus enabling industrial demand optimization and effective communication within the energy ecosystem. Standardization ensures efficient implementation of energy flexibility measures across diverse energy markets. This study proposes a process model to streamline the integration of energy flexibility measures into manufacturing processes. This model eliminates the labor-intensive manual implementation process, enabling seamless adoption of energy flexibility measures and participation in energy markets. Marketing energy flexibility is addressed through the prosumer-based process that leverages standardized communication facilitated by the energy flexibility data model (EFDM), optimizing the energy consumption of manufacturing companies. The contributions of this paper lie in the proposed process model for marketing energy flexibility, streamlining energy flexibility implementation through automated EFDM modeling. The findings provide insights for researchers and practitioners, guiding the adoption of energy flexibility measures and supporting a sustainable energy future.