An IoT Based Approach for Energy Flexible Control of Production Systems

Due to the increasing amount of renewable energy on the energy market resulting in a higher volatility of energy supply, manufacturing companies have an enhanced awareness of their energy demand in order to benefit from alternating prices. Energy flexibility is an opportunity to adapt manufacturing systems to the changing circumstances. The idea of energy flexibility follows the approach of synchronizing energy demand with supply, e.g. to exploit alternating weather conditions. This paper presents an energy-aware demand side management (DSM) approach to control manufacturing systems on the component level. The developed closed loop control is based on an algorithm fed with manufacturing, energy and environmental data and is realized at an Internet of Things (IoT) platform. Based on machine tool models the energy demand of a hypothetical factory is simulated. Taking on-site power generation data into account, the aim of the developed energy-aware control loop is to reduce the appearing residual power that must be balanced with grid-supplied power.