Extending the Automation Pyramid for Industrial Demand Response

Industrial demand response uses a multitude of energy flexibility measures. Their planning and control requires various production IT systems. A widely accepted approach to classify these inhouse IT systems are the levels of the automation pyramid in companies. This paper broadens the scope of this concept to overcome the limitation to companies’ (virtual) borders by including required IT systems that refine and monetarize a company’s energy flexibility, e.g. energy markets, aggregators, etc. Therefore, a holistic approach for the classification of functionalities for industrial demand response across companies and energy markets is developed and applied exemplarily

IT-based Architecture for Power Market Oriented Optimization at Multiple Levels in Production Processes

Given the increasingly volatile prices on the power markets, it becomes economically more and more important for companies to develop and realize flexible strategies for energy consumption. A steady adaption of production processes which considers current power prices can take place on several levels of the automation pyramid, where each level has its own characteristics and requirements. In this paper, we present an optimization architecture based on an IT-platform which meets the challenges of complex multilayered production processes. We introduce layer-specific optimization strategies as well as an associated information flow, which facilitates creating holistic and well-coordinated optimizations

Harnessing the Full Potential of Industrial Demand-Side Flexibility : an End-to-End Approach Connecting Machines with Markets through Service-Oriented IT Platforms

The growing share of renewable energy generation based on fluctuatingwind and solar energy sources is increasingly challenging in terms of power grid stability. Industrial demand-side response presents a promising way to balance energy supply and consumption. For this, energy demand is flexibly adapted based on external incentives. Thus, companies can economically benefit and at the same time contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, there are currently some major obstacles that impede industrial companies fromtaking part in the energymarkets. A broad specification analysis systematically dismantles the existing barriers. On this foundation, a new end-to-end ecosystem of an energy synchronization platform is introduced. It consists of a business-individual company-side platform, where suitable services for energy-oriented manufacturing are offered. In addition, one market-side platform is established as a mediating service broker, which connects the companies to, e.g., third party service providers, energy suppliers, aggregators, and energy markets. The ecosystems aim at preventing vendor lock-in and providing a flexible solution, relying on open standards and offering an integrated solution through an end-to-end energy flexibility data model. In this article, the resulting functionalities are discussed and the remaining deficits outlined

Development of a Smart Energy Community by Coupling Neighbouring Community Microgrids for Enhanced Power Sharing Using Customised Droop Control

This article aims to develop a smart isolated energy community (EC) by coupling the neighbouring rural community microgrids (CMGs) with enhanced droop control for efficient power sharing. This recommended solution employs a power management (PM) based droop-control to enable independent neighbouring CMGs to share power on an available basis by not constraining CMG inverters to equal power sharing. During the grid-connected mode, the droop control may have different power setpoints of each CMG. However, during the standalone mode of operation, the power setpoint should be defined according to their power rating and availability to maintain the system stability. In this article, a PM strategy is developed to maintain the power setpoints of the autonomous CMGs. An improper selection of power setpoints in autonomous CMG can raise the DC link voltage to an unmanageable value and can cause an inadvertent shutdown of CMG. The suggested PM-based droop control enables the CMG inverter not to restrict the inverter to equal power share but to distribute its active power as available in an asymmetric way, if required. The dynamic performance of the proposed coupled system incorporated with two remote isolated CMGs is investigated in a MATLAB environment. Further, a laboratory prototype of the proposed system has been developed using a LabVIEW-based sbRIO controller to verify the efficacy of the proposed approach

A cause and effect model for digital sustainable supply chain competitiveness under uncertainties:Enhancing digital platform

This study provides insights into digitalization in sustainable supply chain management by establishing a structural set of attributes with causal interrelationships among them, as well as by reporting empirical findings on successful criteria for footwear supply chain practices in Indonesia. Sustainable supply chain management and digitalization are mutual benefits. However, there are unclear cause and effect interrelationships. This study aims to critically pinpoint digitalization to approach sustainability and is designed to help firms achieve supply chain competitiveness. The fuzzy Delphi method and fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory are utilized, due to the fuzziness associated with human decision making and the complexity and uncertainty in the supply chain. Five aspects and seventeen criteria are validated. The findings indicate that four aspects, including digital platform effectiveness, digital communication belonging to the supply chain digitalization perspective, labour conditions, and manufacturing processes, are important to sustainable supply chain management. The top causal criteria, including logistics integration, logistics optimization, delivery speed, proactive action, and real-time inventory, are considered to assist firms in implementing better practices

Preparing sparse solvers for exascale computing.

Sparse solvers provide essential functionality for a wide variety of scientific applications. Highly parallel sparse solvers are essential for continuing advances in high-fidelity, multi-physics and multi-scale simulations, especially as we target exascale platforms. This paper describes the challenges, strategies and progress of the US Department of Energy Exascale Computing project towards providing sparse solvers for exascale computing platforms. We address the demands of systems with thousands of high-performance node devices where exposing concurrency, hiding latency and creating alternative algorithms become essential. The efforts described here are works in progress, highlighting current success and upcoming challenges. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Numerical algorithms for high-performance computational science'

Supply chain adaptability in the mobile phones industry

Propósito: A presente investigação participa da discussão da adaptabilidade no estudo da Gestão da Cadeia de Abastecimento e relacionamentos colaborativos entre fornecedores e clientes quer externos ou internos no contexto da indústria de telefones celulares. Metodologia de investigação: Após a revisão da literatura relevante sobre as consequências do acoplamento rígido e ágil na cadeia de abastecimento elaborou-se a seguinte pergunta de investigação: como adaptar a procura na rede de abastecimento de forma a permitir utilizar os recursos disponíveis e maximizar a disponibilidade de produto nos diferentes canais de produção da indústria de telefones celulares? Recorreu-se ao método do Estudo de Caso com carácter exploratório para conduzir o presente estudo. Resultados obtidos: O estudo evidenciou com base em observações dum caso empresarial que é possível aos gestores fazerem modificações no sentido de criar adaptabilidade e desacoplar os sistemas trazendo-os de uma característica de rigidez a uma condição de flexibilidade. Limitações: A investigação em questão limitou-se a observar num unico caso os acontecimentos em questão sob a óptica qualitativa baseada na experiência do pesquisador. A utilização de um maior número de evidencias poderia contribuir para evidenciar melhor as questões intrínsecas do caso. A impossibilidade do pesquisador de revelar todos os dados empresariais por motivos de confidencialidade causou algum impacto na exemplificação do pretendido. Implicações praticas: Os resultados podem contribuir para que os gestores na área de Cadeia de Abastecimento possam encontrar referências para resolver problemas similares em suas respectivas áreas ou tão somente provocar a discussão interna dos temas abordadosPurpose – The present research participates in discussions in the adaptability on the study of Supply Chain Management and Buyer-Supplier collaborative internal or external relationships in the context of the mobile phones Industry Design/methodology/approach – After the review of the relevant literature on tight and loose coupling in Supply Chain Management, the following research questions was raised: “How to adapt the demand supply network in order to utilize the resources available and maximize product availability in different channels of the mobile phones industry?” As research methodology, it was utilized the current Thesis the Single exploratory Case Study, with explanatory characteristics Findings – The study has generated evidences that is possible for managers to modify and adapted the supply chain processes in order to bring them from a tight to a loose coupling characteristic. Research limitations/implications – The research was limited in observing the events in a single case under the qualitative aspect based in the experiences of the researcher. The utilization of a higher number of evidences could certainly have contributed in creating further insights about the case. Elements of data confidentiality and the lack of possibility of the researcher to reveal some aspects involved in the case also contributed to limit the description of certain examples of the case, which could not be made to the full extent. Practical implications – The results encourage managers to use to find references to solve similar problems in their respective areas and also can foster internal discussions on the topics referred in this stud

Compensating Balancing Demand by Spatial Load Migration : The Case of Geographically Distributed Data Center

The increasing share of renewables confronts existing power grids with a massive challenge, stemming from additional volatility to power grids introduced by renewable energy sources. This increases the demand for balancing mechanisms, which provide balancing power to ensure that power supply always meets with demand. However, the ability to provide cost-efficient and eco-friendly balancing power can vary significantly between locations. Fridgen et al. (2017) introduce an approach based on geographically distributed data centers, aiming at the spatial migration of balancing power demand between distant locations. Although their approach enables the migration of balancing demand to cost-efficient and/or eco-friendly balancing mechanisms, it will come up against limits if deployed on a global scale. In this paper, we extend Fridgen et al. (2017)’s approach by developing a model based on geographically distributed data centers, which not only enables the migration of balancing demand but also compensates for this migration when it is contradictory between different balancing power markets without burdening conventional balancing mechanisms. Using a simulation based on real-world data, we demonstrate the possibility to exploit the potential of compensation balancing demand offered by spatial load migration resulting in economic gains that will incentivize data center operators to apply our model