FLECSI research project: flexibilized process control

Steel needs energy. A lot of energy! Whether during production or processing. You may don’t like this circumstance, but the fact remains that we can’t do without steel in this world. However, steel is also one of the few materials that can be recycled almost indefinitely. In view of climate targets and exploding energy prices – at least in Germany – the aim must therefore be to reduce energy consumption in steel production and processing as much as possible, to increasingly obtain the energy required from renewable sources and, last but not least, to optimally align our own energy consumption with price fluctuations on the energy market.

As far as the latter aspect of cost-oriented energy demand control is concerned, the companies of Kuhn Industrie Holding, under the leadership of kuhn.innovation, have been working together with Kuhn Edelstahlgießerei, ASINCO, other industrial companies and the University of Duisburg Essen on a solution since mid-2024 as part of a research project: “Dynamic Determination of Flexibility Potentials for Active Load Shifting Using Intelligent Edge Controllers for Sustainable Steel Production”, as the somewhat unwieldy title of the project, FLECSI for short, suggests.

But what exactly is it about? Put simply, it’s about being able to plan particularly energy-intensive processes in future so that they are carried out at times when the energy required for the process is particularly cheap or when a lot of electricity generated from renewable energy sources is available. While private consumers often pay a contractually agreed fee for their electricity or gas over the long term, companies are not always and exclusively bound by such contracts, but buy their electricity on the spot market, for example – in simple terms: an exchange on which electricity is traded. As supply and demand determine the price here, as on all exchanges, there can be massive price fluctuations over the course of the day alone. The price of electricity in Europe is increasingly reflecting the availability of renewable energies, which are often widely available in times of high wind and sunshine.

However, industrial companies have a rather constant demand for electricity, which must be geared towards processes and customer requirements in particular. The aim of FLECSI is to optimize this. The challenge here is that in companies such as Kuhn Special Steel with little series production but a lot of individual production and very complex processes, such control is difficult. This is where the research project comes in.

Through “plant-related data acquisition and the balancing of product-specific material and energy flows”, potentials for making processes more flexible are to be determined. The aim is to use this data to develop an edge controller system that allows for greater flexibility and better distribution of peak loads during operation in order to exploit cost optimization potential. An online connection of the system to the energy market will then ensure automated product and process-specific control.

In addition to reducing energy costs for the companies that would use the system in future, the project also has social and ecological added value. If it were possible to better adapt energy flows to the availability of renewable energies in future, this would be an important step towards a purely renewable energy supply. If load peaks were to be less high, eliminating the need for additional energy generation from conventional energy sources or additional purchases, this would be better for the climate and for price development and therefore for the consumer.

The project, which is scheduled to run until 2027, is therefore also being funded by the EFRE/JTF program of the Ministry of Economy, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Further information can be found at: https://www.ewl.wiwi.uni-due.de/forschung/forschungsprojekte-ewl/flecsi/

The project on which this report is focudes was funded by the Ministry of Economy, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia under the funding code IN-EN-1-021a-f.