Energy-saving measures are a key issue within Germany's energy transition ("Energiewende").

Particular attention is paid to the industrial production engineering industry, which has a relatively high energy consumption. In order to increase the level of efficiency and the service life of the systems used, specific control measures would be useful.

The collaborative project EnEffReg ThyssenKrupp, Daimler AG - Mercedes-Benz Werk Berlin, Bayer AG, Fraunhofer Institute for Production Plants and Construction Technology (IPK) together with ÖKOTEC Energiemanagement GmbH are investigating efficient control methods since February 2016. The research is conducted both, in simulations and also in practice with their industrial partners.

Based on their extensive experience, the partners discovered that instead of examining individual components in terms of their efficiency, a holistic view of the entire system produced better results. Occasionally it is therefore necessary to run individual components below their best energy efficiency performance if this will result in all the other interconnected components running more efficiently.

In the previous project EnEffCo, the foundations for an energy-related evaluation of the measuring data was laid for process monitoring and efficient assessments using the key performance indicators. In the current project, different approaches for achieving optimisation are being explored. A framework is being developed which will enable the modular implementation of various algorithms and also allow these to be continually adjusted. Due to its modular structure, it can also be installed during actual operation. Thus, various optimisation methods are to be tested and experimentally evaluated in practice. The extensive range of industrial specialisations of the participating companies means that a broad spectrum of processes can be investigated.

The project EnEffReg will run for a period of three years and is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi).