Last month, we successfully completed our DESPRIMA project on Demand-Side-Management (DSM). DESPRIMA showcases how beverage production lines can actively participate in the energy market and provide energy flexibility in form of ancillary services, thereby contributing to the stability of the energy supply. Overall, a significant potential of DSM, leveraging advanced control techniques to optimize and flexibilize the production processes and enhance energy production efficiency has been demonstrated.

More specifically, our research findings revealed that shifting a single bottle produced by our large collaborating enterprise Barndenburger Urstromquelle can deliver 2.5 Wh of energy flexibility. In emergency situations, a single production line has the potential to provide up to 200 kW of power. Thus, an aggregation of the flexibilities of 5 production lines yields already the threshold value of 1MW.

In this venture, we employed various MPC algorithms (centralized, distributed, and switching architectures) to handle different ancillary services. The algorithms cater to different types of demand requests, such as primary and secondary services. To validate the effectiveness of our developed algorithms, we successfully conducted Simulation- and Hardware-in-the-Loop (SiL / HiL) tests.

As we celebrate our success, we are excited to announce that a follow-up project is already in the works. Building upon the success of DESPRIMA, this new project will process flexibility for participation of several production lines in energy spot markets. We look forward to continuing our work in energy-efficient production and industrializing our innovation.

The following video visualizes a simulation based on real-world models. Note as the production fully automatically adapts the production in accordance with the request provided by the energy supplier (DSO).