SynErgie – Synchronized and energy-adaptive production technology for adapting industrial processes to a fluctuating energy supply – project cluster production infrastructure

The SynErgie project, with its more than 50 partners, aims to create within the next ten years all technical and market requirements in line with legal and social aspects in order to effectively synchronize the energy demand of German industry with the volatile energy supply. SynErgie thus contributes to the cost-efficient realization of renewable energies and enables Germany to develop into an international leader for flexible industrial processes and technologies. 

Motivation

The future electricity system in Germany is faced with the challenge of providing an affordable and stable power supply with an ever increasing proportion of fluctuating feeders. Due to the growing volatility, a fundamental change in the electricity market and energy supply needs to be achieved in order to efficiently compensate the imbalances between supply and demand. In order to counteract the increasing demand for spare capacity, a balanced technology mix between renewable energies, flexible conventional power plants, storage, grid expansion and flexible users will be necessary in the future to guarantee security of supply. Many of these solutions are associated with high costs that are passed on to the user and lead to societal acceptance problems. The medium- and short-term flexibility of electricity demand, so-called demand-side management (DSM), offers an opportunity to make cost-efficient and socially acceptable changes possible. With a total of 44% of the net electricity requirement and 25% of the heat demand, industrial processes and, in particular, large individual plants have considerable flexibility levers in energy-intensive industrial sectors.

Objective

SynErgie expands the German industry's energy efficiency measures with regard to the requirements of energy demand flexibility so that the energy demand of production processes can be synchronized with the fluctuating supply of renewables in the future. This is the result for companies in improved conditions of energy procurement and opens up additional system-oriented and cost-efficient flexibility capacities for the electricity system. Within the framework of SynErgie, an interdisciplinary consortium consisting of representative industrial companies, renowned research partners and civil society organizations is to identify all the necessary levers for energy clarification and, in addition to the quantification of flexibility options, to develop and demonstrate suitable solutions.

Procedure in the Cluster Production Infrastructure

Within the cluster of production infrastructure, the iwb has the partial coordination. It addresses various cross-sectional technologies, which can be found in each of the industrial sectors considered by SynErgie. The term "cross-sectional technologies" can, in principle, be used to cover all the technologies that are applied across industries and processes. These include, in particular, compressed air, hydraulics, electromechanical drives, air conditioning and ventilation technology, process heat and cooling.

By means of a systematic investigation of the production infrastructure used in the industrial sectors considered in the cluster, an analysis of the load flexibility potentials is carried out. This potential analysis forms the basis for the subsequent development and design of energy-efficient technical solutions and adapted control concepts. These include, for example, the exploitation and expansion of system-related functional storage capacities, system centralization and the qualification of systems by means of control measures. In addition to the development of data- and model-based load prognosis approaches and "intelligent" monitoring applications ("Smart Meters"), decentralized optimization algorithms are developed for the extension of energy flexibility. The differences in green and brownfield implementation with specific user guides for industry and production infrastructure are of particular interest. A first implementation and validation of individual solutions is to be carried out within the scope of the learning factories in the consortium before they are demonstrated in the industrial environment.

Acknowledgments

The project "SynErgie" is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). We would like to thank the BMBF for its excellent support. For more information, see www.kopernikus-projekte.de 

SynErgie – Synchronized and energy-adaptive production technology for adapting industrial processes to a fluctuating energy supply – project cluster production infrastructure (copy 1)

The SynErgie project, with its more than 50 partners, aims to create within the next ten years all technical and market requirements in line with legal and social aspects in order to effectively synchronize the energy demand of German industry with the volatile energy supply. SynErgie thus contributes to the cost-efficient realization of renewable energies and enables Germany to develop into an international leader for flexible industrial processes and technologies. 

Motivation

The future electricity system in Germany is faced with the challenge of providing an affordable and stable power supply with an ever increasing proportion of fluctuating feeders. Due to the growing volatility, a fundamental change in the electricity market and energy supply needs to be achieved in order to efficiently compensate the imbalances between supply and demand. In order to counteract the increasing demand for spare capacity, a balanced technology mix between renewable energies, flexible conventional power plants, storage, grid expansion and flexible users will be necessary in the future to guarantee security of supply. Many of these solutions are associated with high costs that are passed on to the user and lead to societal acceptance problems. The medium- and short-term flexibility of electricity demand, so-called demand-side management (DSM), offers an opportunity to make cost-efficient and socially acceptable changes possible. With a total of 44% of the net electricity requirement and 25% of the heat demand, industrial processes and, in particular, large individual plants have considerable flexibility levers in energy-intensive industrial sectors.

Objective

SynErgie expands the German industry's energy efficiency measures with regard to the requirements of energy demand flexibility so that the energy demand of production processes can be synchronized with the fluctuating supply of renewables in the future. This is the result for companies in improved conditions of energy procurement and opens up additional system-oriented and cost-efficient flexibility capacities for the electricity system. Within the framework of SynErgie, an interdisciplinary consortium consisting of representative industrial companies, renowned research partners and civil society organizations is to identify all the necessary levers for energy clarification and, in addition to the quantification of flexibility options, to develop and demonstrate suitable solutions.

Procedure in the Cluster Production Infrastructure

Within the cluster of production infrastructure, the iwb has the partial coordination. It addresses various cross-sectional technologies, which can be found in each of the industrial sectors considered by SynErgie. The term "cross-sectional technologies" can, in principle, be used to cover all the technologies that are applied across industries and processes. These include, in particular, compressed air, hydraulics, electromechanical drives, air conditioning and ventilation technology, process heat and cooling.

By means of a systematic investigation of the production infrastructure used in the industrial sectors considered in the cluster, an analysis of the load flexibility potentials is carried out. This potential analysis forms the basis for the subsequent development and design of energy-efficient technical solutions and adapted control concepts. These include, for example, the exploitation and expansion of system-related functional storage capacities, system centralization and the qualification of systems by means of control measures. In addition to the development of data- and model-based load prognosis approaches and "intelligent" monitoring applications ("Smart Meters"), decentralized optimization algorithms are developed for the extension of energy flexibility. The differences in green and brownfield implementation with specific user guides for industry and production infrastructure are of particular interest. A first implementation and validation of individual solutions is to be carried out within the scope of the learning factories in the consortium before they are demonstrated in the industrial environment. 

Acknowledgments

The project "SynErgie" is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). We would like to thank the BMBF for its excellent support. For more information, see www.kopernikus-projekte.de 

Duration 01.09.2016 - 31.08.2019 (up to 10 years)
Project partners over 50 from research, industry and civil society
Funded by Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)