“Just-for-Peak” buffer inventory for peak electricity demand reduction of manufacturing systems

Mayela Fernandez,Lin Li,Zeyi Sun

doi:10.1016/j.ijpe.2013.06.020

Mayela Fernandez, Lin Li + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2013.06.020

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Abstract

The reduction of the electricity demand during peak periods is considered a main objective of electricity load management. It can relieve the financial pressure of the investment on the capacity expansion for the power grid in the United States. Compared to a great deal of research on commercial and residential building sectors, few studies on the electricity demand reduction during peak periods for industrial manufacturing systems have been conducted due to the concern of system throughput variation and the complexity of modern manufacturing systems. This paper presents a novel “Just-for-Peak” buffer inventory methodology to reduce the electricity consumption without compromising system throughput during peak periods for typical manufacturing systems with multiple machines and buffers. Nonlinear Integer Programming (NIP) formulation is used to establish the mathematical model. The optimal buffer inventory management policies and corresponding load management actions for the whole system are identified by minimizing the holding cost of the “Just-for-Peak” buffer inventory and energy consumption cost under the system throughput constraint throughout the production horizon. A numerical case study based on an automotive assembly line is used to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Highlights

It can be observed that about 20.1% power demand can be reduced during peak periods and 20.1% saving of bill charge can be achieved
2.4 Conclusions The above methodology shows that the “Just-for-Peak” buffer philosophy can be successfully applied in typical manufacturing systems with multiple machines and buffers without influencing the system throughput
The same simulation model in ProModel® is used to implement the new load management actions obtained by GAMS

Summary

Introduction

Due to the increasing cost of fossil fuels and new grid capacity investment, the electricity price is expected to increase from 8.6 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2011 to 10.9 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2035 (See Figure 1) for the case of high economic growth scenario (EIA, 2010). The unbalanced distribution of the electricity demand in different periods exacerbates the situation, which leads to the huge financial pressure of the investment on new grid capacity to meet the growing peak demand. To reduce the growing financial cost and make the electricity generation more economically affordable and environmentally responsible, unregulated electricity market model encouraging the competitiveness among the suppliers and marketers has been established to gradually replace the traditional regulatory market model where vertically integrated utilities retain functional control over the transmission and generation system (ESPA, 2013) and the enduse electricity rates are deterministic. The structure of the unregulated model can be briefly described by Figure 2

Methods

Results

Conclusion