An approach for model-based energy cost analysis of industrial automation systems

Current energy reports confirm the steadily dilating gap between available conventional energy resources and future energy demand. This gap results in increasing energy costs and has become a determining factor in economies. Hence, politics, industry, and research focus either on regenerative energy resources or on energy-efficient concepts, methods, and technologies for energy-consuming devices. A remaining challenge is energy optimization of complex systems during their operation time. In addition to optimization measures that can be applied in development and engineering, the generation of optimization measures that are customized to the specific dynamic operational situation, promise high-cost saving potentials. During operation time, the systems are located in unique situations and environments and are operated according to individual requirements of their users. Hence, in addition to complexity of the systems, individuality and dynamic variability of their surroundings during operation time complicate identification of goal-oriented optimization measures. This contribution introduces a model-based approach for user-centric energy cost analysis of industrial automation systems. The approach allows automated generation and appliance of individual optimization proposals. Focus of this paper is on a basic variant for a single industrial automation system and its operational parameters.