Energy flexible manufacturing systems: A systematic literature review, trends and challenges

Abstract

Utilizing renewable energy nearby has become a critical measure for manufacturing to reduce carbon emissions and energy cost. To mitigate the impact of fluctuations in renewable energy on manufacturing, energy flexibility (EF) technology has become a key approach to balance energy supply and demand. Furthermore, with deepening application of EF technology in manufacturing systems, energy flexible manufacturing systems (EFMS) have gradually become a promising direction for the future development of manufacturing systems. However, since EFMS involves multiple fields, the current understanding of EFMS remains unclear. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of the advancements, trends and challenges in EF technology and EFMS. For this, this paper first summarizes the definitions and evaluation indicators of EF in different fields; Second, a quantitative analysis was carried out on 68 studies related to EF technology and EFMS from 5 aspects; Beyond the overview of literature, we identify the trends and challenges for EFMS. On the one hand, the trends of EFMS include low carbonization, digitalization, intelligentization, flexibility and clustering. On the other hand, identified challenges encompass aspects like energy-related data processing, energy flow modeling, prediction, regulation and system design. Through this work, it is hoped to provide comprehensive guidance for addressing common challenges in the development of EFMS from diverse research perspectives, while highlighting potential future research trends and challenges.