Electricity cost saving of manufacturing SMEs

Desired outcome

Our company has developed a methodology supported by IT services (MyEnergy) to save electricity costs for energy-intensive manufacturing SMEs. The challenge is to customize (co-create) MyEnergy for specific operational conditions of a real SME selected by the Team.

Initial Problem Description

Each SME has a different electricity source and consumption regime, depending on the production plans. The Team can select one or more SME in their proximity and solve the following challenges:
1- How can the energy purchase manager of the selected SME understand and apply MyEnergy methodology and IT functions? (online learning ?)
2- What cost savings can be achieved by MyEnergy for a selected month compared to the current electricity costs of the SME
3- The Student Team's proposal to co-create the MyEnergy methodology and IT functions based on feedback from the target SME client.

Context

Keeping the electricity cost under control in the current volatile market price trends is critical to each company's competitiveness. MyEnergy supports the following cost-saving methods:
A. Digitalization of critical equipment consumption data - depending on its operational schedule. Replacement with less energy consumption types of equipment
B. Reduce/optimize the consumption of equipment by better preventive maintenance.
C. Reshedule weekly consumption/production plans according to predicted daily electricity price in the market
D. Purchasing electricity on the markets using an algorithmic trading platform for Day-ahead and Spot orders. Purchase strategy can include buying cheap renewable energy for company battery storage for later internal consumption where spot prices are high.

The overall challenge is to customize this generic method for the specifics of the selected manufacturing SME. The measurable result of the Team project is to present the cost savings achieved using MyEnergy compared to the real monthly electricity bill of the company.

Purchasing (Method D.) shall be simulated: Actual purchase price = Predicted price.

Connection to cross-cutting areas

The challenge is connected to the following areas:
- Industry 4.0 and digitalization: online electricity consumption digitalization (Methods A, B, and C.)
- General sustainability: keeping the company's energy cost under control is a critical factor in the company's competitiveness.
These areas areas are closely interlinked.

Input

Inputs provided at project kick-off:
1. description of MyEnergy methodology and presentation of IT services
2. online access to MyEnergy Mobile app with access to the data content of a sample SME consumption and purchase plan
3. online access to daily and hourly price forecast data applicable for the location (Region) of the selected SME

Communication during the project progress:
4. Weekly TEAMS web meetings
5. Review of the status of project deliverables 1.-3 outlined in the Initial Problem description

The expected project duration is eight weeks/SME use case/student.

Expectations

We expect the team will bring valuable MyEnergy customization experience and proposals on further development of the methods (A.- D.) and IT support. We welcome successful project team members who shall become our business partners in the EU-wide dissemination of the MyEnergy services.

We also welcome proposals for several manufacturing SME use cases with different industrial sectors and/or EU member states.

Desired Team Profile

The Student team should represent a good complementarity of the profiles:
- study subjects in manufacturing production, energy or in maintenance management
- experience in working with spreadsheets to process cost analysis reports
- experience in managing small projects with presentation skills in English

Optional skills shall be a great asset:
- principles of activity-based costing
- programming skills in the Angular development platform (co-creation partner)
- overview of EU energy market policies

Additional Information

MyEnergy is a unique approach addressing the whole process of energy cost management of a manufacturing company, Introducing a new concept of “energy just in time”: purchase the amount what and when it is needed.

There are partial solutions on the market: Energy Radar (Rocket Science, NL) or Octopus Energy Agile Watcher apps. These apps show information about what has happened: what is/was the current and past price and consumption? They do not provide active control of the energy cost of the client.

Related Keywords

• Energy Technology
• Social and Economics concerns
• Sustainability
• Digitalization
• Energy Market