Method for Designing an Energy-agile Energy System for Industrial Manufacturing

A volatile energy supply, where increasing energy costs take a high toll, as well as rapidly changing energy-related technologies are posing new challenges to sustainable manufacturing. The complex interactions between energy-related issues–such as renewable energy or energy efficiency–and a factory's economic goals prevent the consistent consideration of these topics at the stage of strategic factory planning. There is a lack of methodical support for planning an agile energy system. This paper presents the ongoing research work concerned with the development of a method to be applied during the early phase of factory planning for designing an agile energy system for industrial manufacturing. This method is based on a system dynamics approach considering the interactions between a factory and the volatile energy market.