Assessing energy flexibility in non-energy-intensive manufacturing companies

Abstract

The ongoing energy transition to renewable energies heavily impacts even non-energy-intensive manufacturing companies (NEIMCs). This progress comes with fluctuations in electricity availability; and ultimately rising costs. Facing the transformation by applying demand-side energy flexibility measures, so far, has considered rather energy-intensive companies while leaving NEIMCs out of focus. Despite their number and economic importance in the European terrain, their demand-side potential is usually underestimated while it may be central to an overall successful adaptation. In this work, energy transition challenges posed to NEIMCs are funneled from several surveys with eight companies in the southern German manufacturing sector. They were evaluated to extract individual requirements for implementing energy-oriented manufacturing; from a NEIMC’s perspective. Experiences from the process industry were adapted custom-oriented to guideline potentially specific solutions for NEIMCs related to the energy transition using IT solutions. More broadly, this approach reflects opportunities and challenges in the NEIMC environment and outlines promising avenues to exploit energy flexibility.