Energy and environmental performance of iron and steel industry in real-time demand response: A case of hot rolling process

Abstract

The large-scale integration of renewable energy into the power system poses new problems and challenges to its flexible and stable operation. A new grid regulation model based on demand-side resources has emerged as a trend in industry development. Industries such as iron and steel sites consume vast amounts of electrical resources and possess significant demand response (DR) potential. However, the real-time regulation capability of industrial loads has not been clearly quantified, and industrial sectors' enthusiasm for participating in DR is low due to energy and environmental factors. To address thess research gaps, this paper focuses on the hot rolling process in the iron and steel industry and proposes an assessment model to quantify its real-time DR potential. Based on analysis of hot-rolling process' energy and environmental performance during DR, strategies to minimize process gas supply and CO₂ emissions in reheating furnace standby periods have been formulated. Case studies show DR potential peaks at 16 MW at 1200 °C with 304L steel. A one-hour DR can lead to extra 16,975 m³ process gas consumption and 24.1 t CO₂ emissions, which can be mitigated by reducing process gas by 30% for DR under 1 h and shutting down the furnace for longer durations. Using green electricity post-DR can offset CO₂ emissions.