Business Process (4IR) Centric Optimization Modelling

Current best practice methodologies of energy utilization are limited to core production processes, excluding non-core processes. Energy determinations are limited to specialized functions and do not cover the entire business. This research introduces business process modelling to evaluate the holistic business energy demand, inclusive of core production and support functions, of a coal fired power plant. The methodology includes, modelling and statistical techniques, in developing the holistic baseline model, with predictive capacities to forecast the energy impact of changes to the business. Post a validation cycle, the results provide for insights on the impact of optimization, including Cleaner Production, IoT and technology substitution on the coal to energy business. The results include CO₂impact, energy impact and resource (people) impacts as forecast by the model. The model is unique in that it is system agnostic and can be used to forecast any energy production configuration.