An Internet of Things based energy efficiency monitoring and management system for machining workshop

Machining workshop is a widely distributed manufacturing system that consumes massive energy in a low efficiency. In recent years, the increasing pressure from energy price and environmental directive have forced machinery manufacturers to address energy efficiency monitoring and management to improve economic benefits and environmental performance. However, due to the complicated energy flow and dynamic energy changes of the machining workshop, machinery manufacturers still lack an effective method to monitor and manage the energy efficiency in a practical manner. To this end, this paper proposes an energy efficiency monitoring and management system with the support of the newly emerging Internet of Things (IoT) technology. Firstly, the energy characteristics and energy efficiency indicators of the machining workshop are analyzed and defined. Then the framework of the IoT based energy efficiency monitoring and management system is proposed. The key approaches for energy efficiency monitoring and management are then illustrated. Finally, an industrial application is demonstrated to validate the effectiveness and benefits of the proposed system. With the application of the proposed system, potential opportunities for energy consumption decrement and energy efficiency improvement can be identified. Machinery manufacturers can easily reduce energy consumption and energy cost by managing the machining process.