To fight global warming, the 196 Nations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) set common goals in the Paris Agreement to limit the global temperature increase below 2°C. To fulfil these targets, Germany has to reduce greenhouse gas emissions until 2050 by 80-95 % compared with 1990. A concerted effort across all sectors is needed to reach those objectives.

At 21%, mechanical energy comprises the greatest amount of energy consumed in German industry after process heat. To design robust plants and production lines, planners often over-engineer them, leading to greater energy demands. Although it is possible to directly compare the energy consumption of individual components and drives, until now there have been no suitable methods to compare the design of whole production plants. In addition to a specifically designed drive solution, a number of opportunities for saving energy are also provided by intelligent control systems and power-saving circuits. However, these are frequently not applied due to concerns regarding the complexity and technical robustness of the solutions.

The collaborative project EnAP is therefore developing a method to systematically and in a technology-neutral way choose drive systems and automation solutions for entire plants. Hence, not only will the technical requirements but also the energy and economic benefits be taken into account in the planning phase. Based on this methodology, concrete planning tools are to be developed as the next step. With these tools, users will then be able to design and plan energy-efficient plants in a cost-efficient and technology-neutral manner that is in line with their needs.

Participants of the research project are the companies Festo AG & Co. KG (automation technology), KHS GmbH (packaging and filling systems for the food industry), XENON Automatisierungstechnik GmbH (automation technology), the Institute for Fluid Technology of the Technical University of Dresden (drives, control & regulation) and the Institute for System Dynamics of the University of Stuttgart (simulation & optimisation). The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) is supporting the consortium of the EnAP project with funds until November 2019. The focus of the project is on developing production plants for the food industry, yet the results will be applicable across the board for all industries.