Enhancing Industrial Flexibility and Market Participation in Cement Manufacturing Through Optimized Production Scheduling

TL;DR

This paper introduces a two-stage optimization framework for cement manufacturing that enhances industrial flexibility and enables participation in electricity balancing markets, demonstrating economic benefits through a real-world case study.

Contribution

It presents a novel two-stage optimization approach combining scheduling and flexibility assessment for industrial energy management.

Findings

Flexibility services can generate up to 800 EUR monthly revenue.

Payback period for flexibility investments can be as short as six years.

The framework is applicable to energy-intensive industries seeking market participation.

Abstract

The growing share of variable renewable energy (VRE) sources in power systems is increasing the need for short term operational flexibility, particularly from large industrial electricity consumers. This study proposes a practical, two stage optimization framework to unlock this flexibility in cement manufacturing and support participation in electricity balancing markets. In Stage 1, a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model minimizes electricity procurement costs by optimally scheduling the raw milling subsystem. In Stage 2, a flexibility assessment model evaluates profitable deviations, targeting participation in Spain manual Frequency Restoration Reserve (mFRR) market. A real world case study in a Spanish cement plant (including PV and battery storage) shows that flexibility services can yield monthly revenues of up to 800 EUR and paybacks as short as six years. This framework offers a replicable pathway for industrial flexibility in energy intensive sectors.