Research Project "Power Control" Aims for the Increase of Energy Efficiency in Industrial Facilities

Kaiserslautern, March 23, 2015 – Today, industry in Germany is responsible for around 40% of the electrical energy demand. More energy efficient industrial facilities and processes can help to reduce this demand, save resources, and decrease emissions at the same time. The four partners in the initiated research project „Power Control“ want to accomplish this goal through an intelligent networking and controlling of industrial large facilities. The project will be funded by the German Ministry for Research and Education (BMBF) within the framework of "KMU-innovativ" for 30 months with EUR 1 million.

Large facilities consist of a multitude of components, e.g., pumps. Up until now the components were mostly working independently from each other, which means that there was no interaction between each individual component during their operation at the large facility. For the purpose of this project information of multiple components are combined and holistic control algorithms are used in order to increase the efficiency of the entire system. It is expected that the demand for energy will be reduced by up to 10%.

Engineer Markus Fehrenz of Creonic GmbH, who is the project leader, is thrilled about the project: „Our research project tackles a problem that is very important for a successful energy transition to renewable energies, i.e. the increase of energy efficiency. By an extensive application of the algorithms we are about to develop, the greenhouse gas emissions could annually be reduced by 5 million tons in the European Union.“

The project consortium consists of the following partners:

• Creonic GmbH, Kaiserslautern, Germany: Chip design of control algorithms, project leader
• KSB AG, Frankenthal, Germany: Providers of pumps and fixtures
• LQ Mechatronik-Systeme GmbH, Besigheim, Germany: System supplier for electromechanical equipments in mechanical engineering and construction
• University of Technology Kaiserslautern, Germany, Control Systems Group: Design of model-based control algorithms