Renewable energy integration into factories: Real-time control of on-site energy systems

On-site, renewable energy supply systems have potential to create tangible economic and environmental improvements for the manufacturing industry. However, integrated energy supply and demand management is challenging due to the complex and dynamic nature of the problem. This paper presents a real-time operations management solution for integrating renewable energy into factories. A closed-loop and reactive control system is developed based on reliable models of energy supply options. An Australian industry case is used to demonstrate the validity and the practicality of the proposed solution. (c) 2015 CIRP.