Energy Efficiency in a Steel Plant Using Optimization-simulation

The recent years showed a significant increase both in energy costs and social awareness for environmental concerns. In the industrial sector, these aspects affected revenues and sustainability of the most intensive energy plants, such as steel mills. The present paper describes how simulation may powerfully support production planning and the related decisions. The application proposed refers to a steel plant feeding its Continuous Casting line by an electric Arc Furnace. The optimization of the production plan is pursued by an objective function which takes into account both traditional targets (e.g., lead times and due dates) and the need for an efficient use of energy. To this end, a discrete/continuous simulation model was developed: stochastic laws, suitable for temperature variations modelling, were implemented to forecast energy requirements at the Ladle Furnaces and/or the Vacuum Degasser. Final results showed how the simulation‐based Decision Support System may lead to a significant reduction (more than 20%) of the daily consumption of electric energy.