(551f) Flexible Manufacturing and Demand Response for Smart Grid Coordination

One aspect of the smart grid is to use a real-time price structures within electricity markets as a vehicle to mitigate source-load inequities resulting from the uncertainty associated with renewable power sources (solar and wind). Under such price structures, manufacturing facilities with an ability to change energy consumption rates can expect to capture more profit while providing the societal benefit of improving grid reliability. Although facility managers qualitatively agree with the dual benefit of adopting smart grid operating policies, they lack quantitative methods to construct these policies as well as predict revenue gains.

In this paper we will illustrate the use of Economic Model Predictive Control (EMPC) as a vehicle to construct demand response policies for the flexible manufacturing application. In addition, we will propose a linear surrogate for the demand response policy, which will facilitate the development of a quantitative method to assess smart grid coordination opportunities. As an illustration of the approach a chemical processing plant will be investigated where process steam can be generated from a simple furnace or from an electric co-generation plant. In the second part of the example we will consider the additional opportunity of deferment of sub-operations based on supply-chain inventory levels.