About FLEX4FACT
Background
To achieve the goals of the EU Green Deal as well as national energy agenda, an increasing need for flexibility to compensate for fluctuating generation from renewable energy sources is needed. The industrial sector as one of the largest consumers of energy has a mostly untapped potential of flexibility provision.
Increased flexibility of industrial production processes combined with on-site energy supply and storage technologies can offer new opportunities to improve sustainability of industrial sites and help integrate more renewable sources in the power grid. However, there are still some challenges to be tackled: tools need to be developed to better integrate energy storage solutions and renewable sources into industrial settings. Furthermore, solutions linking the flexibility potential of industrial sites with surrounding community and energy markets as a whole need to be developed to enable the realization of new business models.
FLEX4FACT will accompany industrial partners in achieving their energy transition by developing digital tools integrated in a holistic platform, thus paving the way for industrial flexibility provision benefiting various stakeholders along the value chain. This will increase the penetration of renewable sources, which will in turn decrease the dependency on energy fuels and reduce the energy bill of EU enterprises, leading to a competitive EU industry.
Objectives
The objectives of FLEX4FACT project are as follows:
- Develop cost-efficient solutions and tools to make production processes more flexible with regard to the integration of renewable energy sources and on-site and off-site storage technologies,
- Develop digital twins of the industrial processes to support their transformation to achieve greater energy flexibility during operation,
- Valorise the excess of energy streams in industrial processes through its reutilization for both own-use (self-consumption) and external use (feed in into energy networks/hybrid energy communities),
- Leverage energy flexibility from industrial sites by offering demand response services to external agents through a cloud platform, to achieve environmentally friendly production and unlock reward mechanism for the industrial pioneers,
- Demonstrate and validate the developed digital tools within five industrial settings that represent a complementary mix of manufacturing types, sizes and locations,
- Foster the creation of hybrid energy communities involving industrial, commercial and residential stakeholders promoting local energy and flexibility markets.
Flex4Fact Concept
FLEX4FACT builds on a modular and multi-level architecture that leverages the provision of flexibility from the industry through digital process twinning, machine learning techniques and novel algorithms supporting modern manufacturing planning and scheduling. The FLEX4FACT concept consists of four layers: the Factory Cyber-Physical layer that links the digital tools and the physical processes of the industrial use cases, the Factory Dynamic representation layer which maps the energy needs and manufacturing constraints of the industrial processes, the Factory Energy Flexibility layer connecting the industrial clusters and sites to the energy markets and players, and the Factory Renewable Integration layer which helps to identify the potentials for renewable energy production, energy storage and valorisation of excess streams.
Impact
- Reduction of production costs in energy intensive industries and increased uptake of renewable energies through FLEX4FACT’s modular hardware and software solutions
- Creating more and better jobs by transforming the energy supply of energy intensive industries from centralised to decentralised energy,
- Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and energy for all by facilitating the integration of renewable energies,
- Strong European science in the field of digitalisation and automation of manufacturing processes as well as energy management, driven by new high-quality results and knowledge sharing and exploitation with EU research community,
- Build resilient energy infrastructures, promote inclusive and sustainable EU industries and foster innovation,
- Trained and skilled EU workforce boosting the digital industry transition and the use of flexibility from industrial processes,
- Reduction of CO2 emissions, leading to more liveable and cleaner industrial cities and better health.
Background
To achieve the goals of the EU Green Deal as well as the national energy agendas, an increasing need for flexibility to compensate for fluctuating generation from renewable energy sources is needed. The industrial sector as one of the largest consumers of energy has a mostly untapped potential of flexibility provision.
Increased flexibility of industrial production processes combined with on-site energy supply and storage technologies can offer new opportunities to improve sustainability of industrial sites and help integrate more renewable sources in the power grid. However, there are still some challenges to be tackled: tools need to be developed to better integrate energy storage solutions and renewable sources into industrial settings. Furthermore, solutions linking the flexibility potential of industrial sites with surrounding community and energy markets as a whole need to be developed to enable the realization of new business models.
FLEX4FACT will accompany industrial partners in achieving their energy transition by developing digital tools integrated in a holistic platform, thus paving the way for industrial flexibility provision benefiting various stakeholders along the value chain. This will increase the penetration of renewable sources, which will in turn decrease the dependency on energy fuels and reduce the energy bill of EU enterprises, leading to a competitive EU industry.
Objectives
- Develop cost-efficient solutions and tools to make production processes more flexible with regard to the integration of renewable energy sources and on-site and off-site storage technologies,
- Develop digital twins of the industrial processes to achieve greater energy flexibility during operation,
- Valorise the excess of energy streams in industrial processes through its reutilization for both own-use (self-consumption) and external use (feed in into energy networks / communities),
- Leverage energy flexibility from industrial sites by offering demand response services to external agents through a cloud platform
- Demonstrate and validate the developed digital tools within five industrial settings that represent a complementary mix of manufacturing types, sizes and locations,
- Foster the creation of hybrid energy communities involving industrial, commercial and residential stakeholders
Concept
FLEX4FACT builds on a modular and multi-level architecture that leverages the provision of flexibility from the industry through digital process twinning, machine learning techniques and novel algorithms supporting modern manufacturing planning and scheduling. The FLEX4FACT concept consists of four layers: the Factory Cyber-Physical layer that links the digital tools and the physical processes of the industrial use cases, the Factory Dynamic representation layer which maps the energy needs and manufacturing constraints of the industrial processes, the Factory Energy Flexibility layer connecting the industrial clusters and sites to the energy markets and players, and the Factory Renewable Integration layer which helps to identify the potentials for renewable energy production, energy storage and valorisation of excess streams.
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Impact
- Reduction of production costs in energy intensive industries and increased uptake of renewable energies through FLEX4FACT’s modular hardware and software solutions,
- Creation of more and better jobs by increasing the level of digitalisation in factories,
- Facilitation of industry’s access to affordable and sustainable energy by supporting the integration of renewable energies,
- Increased energy security through the supply of energy intensive industries with localised integrated systems,
- Strong European science in the field of digitalisation and automation of manufacturing processes as well as energy management, driven by new high-quality results and knowledge sharing and exploitation with the EU research community,
- Support the creation of resilient energy infrastructures and promotion of inclusive and sustainable EU industries and foster innovation,
- Trained and skilled EU workforce boosting the digital industry transition,
- Reduction of CO2 emissions, leading to more liveable and cleaner industrial cities and better health.