Synthetic load profile generation for production chains in energy intensive industrial subsectors via a bottom-up approach

Paul Josef Binderbauer, Thomas Kienberger, Thomas Staubmann

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

Iron & Steel, Pulp & Paper, Non-Metallic Minerals and Chemical & Petrochemical are the most energy intensive subsectors, even though they utilise only a limited range of production processes compared to other sectors like Machinery or Food & Beverages. To support future efforts for decarbonising the European industry, this study aims to develop a methodology to correctly and dynamically depict all relevant production processes of the mentioned subsectors and to generate synthetic load profiles (LP)1 based upon their consumption and generation behaviour. In a first step, the energy intensive subsectors and their main production processes are identified. A standardised research approach is used to correctly depict their characteristics e.g. runtime, energy consumption and generation, unit sizes etc. Next, a methodology for modelling the timely behaviour of these production processes and for generating synthetic LPs is developed. This method is based upon the bottom-up approach of discrete-event simulation combined with stochastics. The developed methodology is then implemented into the simulation software Ganymed. Finally, the results of this methodology are validated via a case study, modelling the primary steel production route of an Austrian steel mill. In overall, the synthetic electricity LP shows good approximations to the measured one with a mean absolute percentage error of 6.08% for the simulated five days in total. However, a stronger deviation of the generated LP compared to the measured counterpart can be noted at the last two days. This deviation results from a reduction of the capacity during the real life production. This, however, can be taken into account in the synthetic generation given a more extensive data basis. Consequently, Ganymed can be deemed as a suitable software for generating energy consumption and generation behaviour of processes and production chains of energy intensive industries.
Original languageEnglish
Article number130024
Number of pages14
JournalJournal of Cleaner Production
Volume331.2022
Issue number10 January
Early online date7 Dec 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 10 Jan 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021

Keywords

  • Energy model
  • Industry
  • Load profile
  • Load profile generation
  • Simulation

Cite this