Enhanced Energy Modeling and Simulation: Focus on Electricity in Manufacturing Systems

The industry is currently affected by resource scarcity, including energy, water, gas, etc. Managing these resources has not been given much attention by the industry, even though it directly affects its performance. With rising energy costs, regulatory requirements, and environmental issues, it becomes necessary to estimate and control the energy consumption of manufacturing systems. This article explores how to model and simulate energy consumption, specifically electricity, and the dynamics of discrete manufacturing systems. By covering the power profiles of consumers/producers, different levels of integration of critical energy resources and their managing strategies (reactive/proactive) are explored. Finally, a first experimentation on commercial tools is also discussed. The initial results of the use case confirm the viability of the proposed energy artifacts for the considered shop floor energy assessment and management.