3 research outputs found
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Energy usage and temperature distribution in old mega factories
Global environmental problems and the rising cost of energy puts industries under pressure to reduce energy consumption and lower their carbon footprint. Old “mega factories” use a lot of energy to maintain the production and working environment in an optimal condition when compared to newer factories. Heating cost can amount to more than 26% of the annual utility bill despite the mild climate of the United Kingdom.
Intelligent cost reduction solutions, suitable management strategies and contemporary low carbon policies can significantly reduce this energy consumption without incorporating the latest and expensive technical solutions. Extensive research was carried out at a manufacturing plant with large old buildings to investigate multifarious solutions of low cost energy saving methods. Environmental plant data was obtained and analysed to understand thermal characteristics of the factory space. Non-uniform temperature distribution, consistently high average temperatures and an unstable machine environment all contributed to unnecessary expenses. Cost effective implementations, such as secure high speed doors, management strategies and employee awareness, consistent temperature monitoring and communication can create more uniform temperature distribution for a more stable working and manufacturing environment. The average temperature within this plant could be reduced by adequate measures and the comfort for employees and the machinery environment could be simultaneously improved to guarantee smoother operations and lower carbon footprint
Multiple energy carrier optimisation with intelligent agents
Multiple energy carrier systems stem from the need to evolve traditional electricity, gas and other energy systems to more efficient, integrated energy systems. An approach is presented, for controlling multiple energy carriers, including electricity (AC or DC), heat, natural gas and hydrogen, with the objective to minimise the overall cost and/or emissions, while adhering to technical and commercial constraints, such as network limits and market contracts. The technique of multi-agent systems (MAS) was used. The benefits of this approach are discussed and include a reduction of more than 50% in the balancing costs of a potential deviation. An implementation of this methodology is also presented. In order to validate the operation of the developed system, a number of experiments were performed using both software and hardware. The results validated the efficient operation of the developed system, proving its ability to optimise the operation of multiple energy carrier inputs within the context of an energy hub, using a hierarchical multi-agent system control structure