An oven that runs day and night, a production line that can’t be shut down, a water treatment plant that treats water around the clock. Many industries consume enormous amounts of energy and operate on such tight schedules that they can’t take advantage of times when energy is cheaper or cleaner.
What if those factories could reorganize themselves based on the price of electricity, the availability of renewable energy, or the raw materials they receive? That is the goal of AGILE, a European project in which Voltiva Energy is working to ensure that this ability to adapt translates into savings and revenue for the industry.
When the factory can't shut down
Metallurgy, ceramics, and water treatment are all process industries: they transform raw materials using heat, chemicals, or large pieces of equipment that consume a great deal of energy. They are designed to produce output in a consistent and predictable manner, which makes them inflexible.
The problem is that its operating environment is no longer stable. Electricity prices change every hour, solar and wind power are not always available, and raw materials vary in quality and origin. A factory that cannot adapt ends up paying more for energy, fails to take full advantage of renewable energy, and loses its competitive edge.
Factories Capable of Reorganizing Themselves
AGILE aims to make the European process industry more flexible, efficient, and sustainable. To achieve this, it combines physical improvements to equipment with a new digital layer, and it does so through four components:
- Redesigned equipment: systems that recover heat that is currently lost and new ways to recycle materials
- Digital twins: virtual replicas of processes that allow changes to be tested on a computer before implementing them on the factory floor.
- Artificial intelligence agents: small, specialized digital “assistants” that coordinate with one another to manage energy consumption.
- Technology designed with people in mind: user-friendly screens and conversational assistants that help workers understand and make the most of these tools.
Three industries, three real-world tests
AGILE is funded by Horizon Europe with a budget of approximately 11.7 million euros, of which the European Union is contributing nearly 10 million. Over the course of 48 months, the project will bring together 24 partners from 10 countries—including technology centers, universities, SMEs, and large industrial firms—under the coordination of the AIMEN technology center.
The solutions will be tested at three actual plants in Bulgaria, Greece, and Spain.
From Flexibility to Savings: Our Contribution
The ability of a factory to adjust its energy consumption has real economic value, and at Voltiva Energy, we work to help the industry take advantage of it. As part of AGILE, we are leading the development of a tool to quantify the value of flexibility. This tool calculates how much each industry can adjust its energy consumption, when it is most advantageous to do so, and how to monetize it in the electricity markets.
Specifically, we focus on the balancing services markets, where the system operator compensates those who adjust their consumption to maintain the grid’s balance. An artificial intelligence agent analyzes whether each plant meets the requirements to participate, which services are most profitable for it, and how to adapt its decisions to prices and production trends.
In addition, we have developed an energy planning agent that looks ahead by weeks and months. This agent proposes the optimal combination of self-consumption, storage, renewable energy contracts, and market purchases, and quantifies the savings for each scenario. In the Spanish pilot, we will support CIRCE in implementing AGILE’s energy management system so that the industry can capitalize on the flexibility it gains.
The industry does not have to choose between production and sustainability. With projects like AGILE, flexibility becomes a new source of competitiveness for European factories and a key factor in integrating more renewable energy.
