Cost and carbon reductions from industrial demand-side management: Study of potential savings at a cement plant

Demand-side management (DSM) has the potential to reduce electricity costs and the carbon emissions associated with electricity use for industrial consumers. It also has an important role to play in integrating variable forms of generation, such as wind and solar, into the grid. This will be a key part of any grid decarbonisation strategy. This paper describes a method that can be used to develop a new production schedule for a wide range of manufacturing facilities. The new schedule minimises either electricity costs or electricity-derived CO$_2$ emissions. It does so by rescheduling production to low cost or low carbon periods, without loss of overall production, within the constraints of available inventory storage. A case study of a single cement plant in the UK was performed in order to determine the potential benefits of increased load-shifting DSM using this method. The alternative production scheduled showed the potential to decrease electricity costs by 4.2%. Scaled to values from a typical plant this would lead to a cost saving of £350,000, a substantial saving. A schedule optimised to minimise carbon emissions would save an estimated 2000 tonnes per year of CO$_2$, a 4% decrease in electricity-derived emissions. It was also observed that the actual electricity consumption of the plant was considerably higher than the minimum consumption predicted by the model. This could indicate potential for significant savings in both cost and CO$_2$ due to improvements in energy efficiency. The potential savings from DSM doubled when the prices passed to the plant were replaced with a price that varied in proportion to the wholesale cost of electricity. This indicates that a potential mutual benefit exists for both industrial consumers and electricity generators by passing on more of the variation in price. A larger share of generation from wind and solar will also lead to increased variation in prices and grid carbon intensity in future. The value of applying the method described in this paper is therefore likely to increase further in future.Funding to support this research was gratefully received from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Grant number EP/L504920/1. Thanks to Hanson Cement for providing access to their factories and supplying the data on which the research was based

Product Carbon Footprint in Polymer Processing - A practical approach

Part of: Seliger, Günther (Ed.): Innovative solutions : proceedings / 11th Global Conference on Sustainable Manufacturing, Berlin, Germany, 23rd - 25th September, 2013. - Berlin: Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin, 2013. - ISBN 978-3-7983-2609-5 (online). - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:83-opus4-40276. - pp. 284-289.Light weight and synthetic polymer materials form the physical basis of many products across various applications worldwide. Given their reliance on fossil fuel inputs, this increases the importance of environmental assessment in the polymer industry. The energy intensity of plastics manufacturing and processing and the associated high embodied energy of polymer products warrants further investigation. The Carbon Footprint (CFP) methodology enables the estimation of the GHG emissions associated with polymer production. It quantifies the greenhouse gases released from polymer processing. An existing mid-sized polymer processing factory is utilised as a case study in this analysis. In addition, this study provides the data necessary for reviewing energy efficiency measures by estimating their value within CFP analysis. It also identifies the different strengths and weaknesses of the CFP approach. The analysis could then be used in plastics industry ‘green’ decision making

Cost and carbon reductions from industrial demand-side management: Study of potential savings at a cement plant

Demand-side management (DSM) has the potential to reduce electricity costs and the carbon emissions associated with electricity use for industrial consumers. It also has an important role to play in integrating variable forms of generation, such as wind and solar, into the grid. This will be a key part of any grid decarbonisation strategy. This paper describes a method that can be used to develop a new production schedule for a wide range of manufacturing facilities. The new schedule minimises either electricity costs or electricity-derived CO$_2$ emissions. It does so by rescheduling production to low cost or low carbon periods, without loss of overall production, within the constraints of available inventory storage. A case study of a single cement plant in the UK was performed in order to determine the potential benefits of increased load-shifting DSM using this method. The alternative production scheduled showed the potential to decrease electricity costs by 4.2%. Scaled to values from a typical plant this would lead to a cost saving of £350,000, a substantial saving. A schedule optimised to minimise carbon emissions would save an estimated 2000 tonnes per year of CO$_2$, a 4% decrease in electricity-derived emissions. It was also observed that the actual electricity consumption of the plant was considerably higher than the minimum consumption predicted by the model. This could indicate potential for significant savings in both cost and CO$_2$ due to improvements in energy efficiency. The potential savings from DSM doubled when the prices passed to the plant were replaced with a price that varied in proportion to the wholesale cost of electricity. This indicates that a potential mutual benefit exists for both industrial consumers and electricity generators by passing on more of the variation in price. A larger share of generation from wind and solar will also lead to increased variation in prices and grid carbon intensity in future. The value of applying the method described in this paper is therefore likely to increase further in future

Demand Side Management within Industry: A Case Study for Sustainable Business Models

The transition of the German energy market is primarily based on RES. The main problem of RES like photovoltaic and wind power is volatile availability. This issue can be mitigated through enhanced flexibility of the demand. DSM can be an additional mechanism in smart grids. Energy intensive industry offers a high DSM potential that could be useful to the energy sector. New business models are required that combine economic viability with environmental and social benefits for various stakeholders operating in the energy sector and manufacturing industry. This research analyses opportunities for business model innovation through DSM in industry. The study presents two case studies in which the Value Mapping Tool was applied to identify failed value exchanges with respective stakeholders and DSM. The research proposes a new business model aligned with sustainable development principles that can help the industry to mitigate volatile energy availability in an economically sensible manner