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Procedia CIRP 59 (2017) 214 – 219

The 5th International Conference on Through-life Engineering Services (TESConf 2016)

Analysing the Cumulative Energy Demand of Product-Service Systems for

wind turbines
G. Merta*, B.S. Linkeb, J.C. Auricha*
a
Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Production Systems, University of Kaiserslautern, Germany
b
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California Davis, USA

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +49-631-205-4225; fax: +49-631-205-3304. E-mail address: publications.fbk@mv.uni-kl.de

Abstract

Many wind turbine manufacturers offer services for their products. The integration of products and services, so called Product-Service Systems
(PSS), are intended to support customers over the life time of a product and to ensure a long and successful customer relationship. Besides of the
requirements of customers, wind turbine manufacturers have to consider requirements of the government and society as well. Sustainability in
all three dimensions, economy, environment, and society, is increasingly relevant in engineering. PSS providers have the possibility to improve
sustainability of their products and services over the entire life time and supply chain. For this purpose, novel methods need to be provided to
support PSS providers to evaluate and improve PSS sustainability.
In this paper, an approach to analyse and reduce the Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) of PSS is presented to improve economic and
environmental sustainability. The approach is explained on a wind turbine including training as service. In the approach three subgoals are
addressed: First, CED of PSS is investigated. Second, the impacts of changes in the CED of PSS will be analysed, potential levers will be
identified and measures derived. Third, strategies based on the measures will be generated which enable a reduction of the CED of PSS.

©©2016
2016TheTheAuthors. Published
Authors. by Elsevier
Published B.V. This
by Elsevier B.V.is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the Programme Committee of the 5th International Conference on Through-life Engineering Services
(TESConfunder
Peer-review responsibility of the scientific committee of the The 5th International Conference on Through-life Engineering Services (TESConf 2016)
2016).

Keywords: Product-Service Systems; Cumulative Energy Demand; sustainability; wind turbines

1. Introduction “total quantity of primary energy which is necessary to produce,

Changed requirements of customers caused a trend from
technology providers to service providers. Customers are
interested in complete and sustainable solutions. Product-
Service Systems (PSS) aim to achieve sustainability and
customer satisfaction by systematically providing various
services for products [1]. PSS offer life cycle-oriented services
to support customers over the entire life time of their product.
PSS are strongly customer-oriented and it is assumed that PSS
provide the ability to reduce environmental impacts. However,
it is not guaranteed [2] and not proven on any use cases. For an
evaluation of environmental impacts of PSS, an ecological
assessment is needed. The Cumulative Energy Demand (CED)
is an opportunity to assess and evaluate the sustainability of a
single product or a service based on energy. It describes the
use and dispose a product” [3]. The CED in its existing state is
not suitable to evaluate a complex system consisting of
products and services as it is the case for PSS. It needs to be
adapted and enhanced due to the PSS-specific characteristics.
Therefore, the paper demonstrates an approach to analyse and
reduce the CED of PSS. The first part starts with the state-of-
the-art about CED, followed by the state-of-art of PSS and the
relevance of services for wind turbines. Based on the existing
research work, the need for a PSS-specific approach for
determining the CED is explained. The main part of the paper
is dedicated to the approach which is developed in a research
project. It presents how to enlarge the current CED method so
that it is adaptable for PSS in respect of wind turbines. Finally,
the paper ends with a conclusion and further research work on
the approach.

2212-8271 © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the The 5th International Conference on Through-life Engineering Services (TESConf 2016)
doi:10.1016/j.procir.2016.09.018
 G. Mert et al. / Procedia CIRP 59 (2017) 214 – 219
2. State-of-the-art
2.1. Cumulative Energy Demand
Cumulative Energy Demand is a part of the Life Cycle
Assessment (LCA). CED enables to evaluate and compare
products and services with respect to energy criteria. Hereto,
the primary energy demand, all energy carriers that are found
in nature, will be calculated for the entire life time of the
investigated product. CED is the sum of the cumulative energy
demands for the production (CEDP), for the use (CEDU) and for
the disposal (CEDD) of the economic good. [3]
‫ܦܧܥ = ܦܧܥ‬௉ + ‫ܦܧܥ‬௎ + ‫ܦܧܥ‬஽
The VDI guideline 4600 suggests a method for determining
CED of products and services [VDI4600]. For the calculation
of CED the sum of cumulative energy consumption (KEV) and
the cumulative non-energy demand (KNA) are necessary. The
KEV includes all the final energies for heat, energy, light and
other forms of effective electricity generation which are valued
as primary energy. The KNA defines the sum of all non-energy
purposes and the inherent energy of working materials which
are also valued as primary energy. [3]
An important basis for the calculation of the CED is the
definition of the balancing boundaries and the balance-sheet
items. For this purpose, the material and energy flows have to
be defined and quantified. The boundaries can be defined
according to local, temporal and technological criteria. A
determination of all pre and incidental process chains is not
possible and the systematic limitation is a challenge because of
the complexity and multiplicity of the interactions of individual
processes. Therefore, the delimitation between relevant and not
relevant process chains is important. To this, delimiting criteria
exist. In an ideal case the balance space is from the raw material
of the deposit to the final disposal. A redefinition of the criteria
for the boundary setting has to be done because the balance
boundaries are defined based on facts and circumstances at the
beginning of an analysis and might change over time.
Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis with varying balance
boundaries is necessary during the calculation of the CED to
assess the impacts of different balance boundaries. [3]
Methods for balancing are the process chain analysis used
in form of a material balance analysis, a micro- and macro-
analysis as well as an energy input-output analysis.
Perspective of Designing
manufacturer
Planning Development
Perspective of Decision Buy
customer
Procurement
Figure 1: PSS life cycle from the perspective of manufacturer and customer [4]
215
The process chain analysis is a micro-analysis where the
product flow is classified into individual processes according
to the production process. Originating from the final product
each step from the production to the disposal is analysed which
is necessary for the process chain. The first step starts with an
analysis of the production of the assemblies. In the next, more
detailed step the production of the semi-finished products and
raw materials are considered. For this method, the amount of
data is high and it may reach its limits of practicability. For the
determination of CED a step-wise approximation, using a
combination of micro-analytical and macro-analytical
approaches, is recommended. [3]
The macro-analysis is based on values of input and output
(1) flows of products of homogeneous production areas. The
energy input-output analysis is based on national data on
economic interdependence and energy use. It is not suitable for
the determination of the CED of individual products because of
the degree of aggregation and reference to monetary values. [3]
For the determination of the CED of PSS the typical
characteristics of PSS need to be known, analysed and adapted
into the new approach. The next section presents the most
important characteristics of PSS.
2.2. Product-Service Systems
Product-Service Systems are defined as consumer-oriented
solutions consisting of a technical product which is supported
and enhanced over its entire life time with different services
[4]. Services can be classified according to the life cycle phases
or by their functionality into six types [4]: technical, qualifying,
process-oriented, logistical, informational and financial.
Technical services like maintenance are focused on recovering
the functions of a product. Qualifying services improve the
quality of work of customer employees, e.g. operator training.
Process-oriented services optimise the production process of
the customer and logistical ones support spare part supply.
Informational services are reports and the supply of
information for the customer. Financial services help
customers by providing leasings.
PSS have a customer-oriented perspective instead of
product-oriented. They have a comprehensive life cycle
compared to a single product as they contain life cycle
perspective of the manufacturer as well as of the customer (see
figure 1). The manufacturer and customer have a cooperation
during the usage of the product. Both act as external and
internal production factors during the whole work process [4].
Implementation
End-of-Life
Production Service
Usage End-of-Life
FBK/016_012
216 G. Mert et al. / Procedia CIRP 59 (2017) 214 – 219
Because PSS cannot be independently created and delivered by
a single provider, the manufacturer cooperates with the
extended value-added network [5, 6]. The extended value-
added network defines the suppliers and service providers
which are a part of the supply chain of PSS [7]. PSS represents
a “knowledge-intensive socio-technical system” and is
characterized by the integrated and mutually determined
planning, development, provision and use of product and
service shares [7, 8]. It is characterised by the interaction
between the usage of the product and the service process and
consists always of material and immaterial results during the
realisation phase [7].
PSS are common in many industrial sectors, as it is the case
for wind turbine sector. Their relevance for wind turbines and
service relevant components will be explained in the next part.
2.3. Relevance of services for wind turbines
The wind turbine industry is a growing industry and
especially for China, USA and Germany of interest when
considering the new installed capacity in 2015. In Germany the
amount of new installed onshore wind capacity accounts of
6.013 MW which means a rise of 13.38% compared to the total
installed capacity. In USA the new installed capacity of MW
increased by 11.55% and in China even more with 21.16%. The
worldwide installed capacity amounted 432.883 MW in 2015.
[9]
Services are of high relevance for technical products like
wind turbines where the availability and reliability is crucial.
For wind turbines the reliability is very important because
breakdowns imply high maintenance costs. According to a
study, the expenses for maintenance and repair of a wind
turbine account for one quarter of the operating costs in 20
years of operating time [10]. Although the failure rates decrease
with the time, the operating costs increase due to the fact that
warranty services of manufacturers are offered in the first years
of the life time [11]. Figure 2 presents the reliability of wind
turbine components. It classifies components in critical and
noncritical ones according to the first time until their repair or
replacement (x-axis). The y-axis shows the replacement costs
Replacement costs [€/kW]
Rotor Blade
Critical Components
Generator Pitch
Gear
Control and
General Electronics
Yaw System
Brakes
Shafts
Main bearing
Hydraulic System
0 2.5 5 7.5 10
Years until a repair or replacement [t]
Figure 2: Repair costs of wind turbine components [Based on 10]
for each component. The critical components with high
replacement costs are the rotor blade, the pitch, the gear and
generator. Noncritical components which have the first
breakdown after twelve years are the transformer, the tower and
the foundation. In the study of [12] the frequency of failure and
the period of time were demonstrated for each component in
connection with the time for repair. It underlined that electrical
systems fail often but have a short down time. Expensive parts
like the gearbox, generator, drive train or rotor hub have a low
failure frequency but need much more time for repair [12]. This
knowledge is important in relation to optimize the CED of
services. For critical components, services are more relevant
and might have a higher impact on the CED of PSS. Therefore,
for the approach a use case of rotor blades and service control
of their cracks might be interesting.
Currently, each wind turbine is remotely monitored by a
SCADA-system (System Control and Data Acquisition). It
collects data over status messages about the condition of the
plant and failures, revenue parameter as well as operating
parameters like rotational speed, performance, wind speed and
wind direction. This kind of data is constantly collected in the
wind turbine and saved in its control and can be requested by
the plant provider or wind turbine manufacturer [10]. It enables
to collect and analyse data for determining the economic and
ecologic impact of wind turbines as well as to help providers in
improving their product and services.
The most relevant life cycle phases and materials for the
CED of a wind turbine are also of interest for the approach to
analyse the CED of PSS. According to [14], 84% of the CED
is caused in the production phase, 8% in the usage phase and
another 8% is necessary for the assembly, transport and
dismantling. This result is based on an example of a 2.3 MW
wind turbine with a total amount of 2.096t of material: concrete
(1.744t), steel (237t), cast iron (73t), glass fibre reinforced
plastic (29t), copper (12t) and aluminium (1t). It was found out
that the tower is responsible for 36% and the foundation for
Tower
Noncritical Components
Transformer Station
Foundation
12.5 15 17.5 20
FBK/016_013
 G. Mert et al. / Procedia CIRP 59 (2017) 214 – 219 217

Steps Tasks Results

1 Analysis of PSS-specific • Definition of PSS-specific requirements to determine CED of List of requirements for
requirements PSS regarding data collection methods, process steps etc. determining CED of PSS
• Enhancing the CED method based on the requirements

2 Defining PSS-specific functional
unit and system boundaries
• Modeling of relevant resources for the entire life cycle PSS-specific approach for
• Identification and classification of dependencies between determining CED of PSS
balance elements
• Modification of methods (e.g. process chain analysis)
• Generalization of all findings into an approach

3 Analysis of dependencies and • Identification of CED-relevant PSS changes based on the PSS-specific approach for
impacts of PSS changes on the control lever analysing the dependencies of
CED • Classification of CED-relevant PSS changes PSS on CED
• Determining the cause-effect relationship

4 Identification of measures for • Analysis of impact mechanism to identify measures Approach for reducing the
reducing the CED of PSS • Evaluation of control lever CED of PSS
• Developing an approach for a systematic reduction of CED of
PSS

FBK/016_014
Figure 3: Overview of the approach to analyse and reduce the Cumulative Energy Demand of Product-Service Systems [Based on 16]

55% of the material demand. This is also confirmed by [13] as
it was figured out that the CED of wind turbines is mainly
caused by the material phase which needs the highest energy
and carbon foot print during the primary material production of
wind turbine parts. The production processes itself is the
second dominant phase. Energy for transportation and use
phase is negligible.
2.4. Research Gap CED of PSS
The method CED is a possibility to evaluate and compare
products according to their ecology. It aggregates consistently
the demand of different energy sources. Within a research
project a method and solution is enabled that reduces the
specific energy demand in the industrial production [15]. The
method is based on the CED method, but focuses only on the
resource energy and on the energetic usage of energy sources.
Thus, it is analysed how it is possible to reduce the energy
demand in the usage phase by choosing applied materials
which influences the energy demand of preliminary processes
[15]. Because of the high CED in the production phase of a
wind turbine, it is interesting to analyse different materials or
constructions for the foundation.
However, the method for calculation the CED do not
consider PSS-specific characteristics, e.g. evaluation of
complex solutions which consist of tangible and intangible
elements or the interdependencies between products and
services (see section 2.2). Even the ecological guideline as the
LCA indirectly address and do not have any specific attention
to solutions like PSS that consist of both tangible and intangible
elements and include behavioral changes. The implementation
of LCA for PSS has not been explored [2]. Considering
research from year 2000 to 2015 only eleven journal articles
exist which demonstrate PSS cases evaluated for the use of
LCA. Only a few of these articles discuss the use of LCA for
PSS in detail. Currently, there is a limited experience on
conducting LCA or CED on PSS [2]. Nevertheless, CED as a
part of LCA is applicable for PSS.
3. Approach to analyse and reduce the Cumulative Energy
Demand of Product-Service Systems
The following approach aims to enable a systematic
approach for an optimisation or reduction of the CED of PSS
and consists of four steps (see figure 3). After the final step the
approach needs to be validated based on a use case of the wind
turbine industry.
The approach starts with the analysis of PSS-specific
requirements to determine the CED of PSS. The requirements
are regarding PSS characteristics, data collection methods,
process steps etc. The CED of PSS has to consider the
perspective of the provider and of the customer. So, for the
customers perspective the CED implies all resources which are
necessary for the usage of the wind turbine and for the service
realisation process (resources in terms of time and costs for the
service) as well as the end-of-life processes. From the providers
perspective the CED must be enhanced by considering the
resources for the service realisation (see figure 4). These are for
example fuel for the transportation, materials and energy for
producing spare parts, service auxiliaries, service tools etc.
CED of wind turbine in usage and service CED of End-of-life
realisation process processes
CEDU and CEDS CEDE
Customer
CED of PSS
PSS provider
CEDP CEDR
CED for production of wind turbine CED for providing resources for
the service realisation
FBK/016_015
Figure 4: CED elements for PSS [Based on 16]
218 G. Mert et al. / Procedia CIRP 59 (2017) 214 – 219
Furthermore, following requirements are relevant to
consider to determine the CED of PSS:
x Data availability, e.g. data of resources for service
realisation,
x Effort on determining data in comparison with the
relevance for the CED, e.g. for which processes is it useful
to determine the primary energy demand
x Impact on other life cycle phases, e.g. selection of material
for spare parts
x Using different CED methods or a hybrid method suitable
for product and services
x Dependencies between product and services, e.g. how
service effects the failure frequency of components
x Defining homogenous boundaries for products and services
regarding local, temporal and technological criteria (e.g.
production of spare parts adapted to the life time of wind
turbine).
The second step is the core task of any environmental
assessment, the definition of a functional unit (FU). It is the
quantified description of the performance of a wind turbine or
a service and is an important step because the FU provides the
reference to which all other data in the assessment is
normalised [17]. In the literature, this step is also defined as
challenging because of two reasons: On the one hand, it is
difficult to specify how broad the FU should be and on the other
hand because of the comparability of the chosen alternatives,
especially considering sub-functions [2]. Another challenge is
due to the fact that a result of a service is difficult to express in
terms of a FU. Usually services provide soft elements which
are not measurable in a FU [18]. For example, hotline service
or training of service technicians are difficult to measure in a
FU. Therefore, attention should be given on the goal and scope
definition. The FU for PSS should be its functionality. In case
of a wind turbine the functionality is to produce as much energy
as possible. Services for wind turbines, like maintenance or
condition monitoring, have the functionality to ensure the
productivity of it. Technical, qualifying, process-oriented and
logistical services are suitable for this FU. Informational and
financial services have a negligible impact on the productivity
of the wind turbine and can be excluded. The FU can be defined
as the produced kW in one hour.
For the system boundaries technical, time-relevant as well
geographical PSS-specific limitations have to be defined. The
technical boundary, e.g. consideration of technical state and
capacity is for the wind turbine as well for the service
+ Quality of
Amount of production work + Quality of
worker trainings
+ product
Production effort
+
Quality of
maintenance work
+ +
- Mean time Cumulative
- Energy Demand -
to repair
+ of PSS
Mean time maintenance work
between failures -
Figure 5: Causal loop for worker training and its impact on the CED of PSS
maintenance or spare parts delivery relevant. The geographical
boundary of the production of a wind turbine needs to be in
consistence with the service delivery. The criteria time for
example for the production of a rotor blade regards the
exploitation, production of raw material and semi-products,
final assembly and landfilling. Whereas the criteria time for
services needs to concern the life time of such a rotor blade,
e.g. CED of controlling cracks in the rotor blade for 20 years
of life time. Furthermore, the presented CED methods in part
2.1 need to be modified according to the determined
requirements. Dependencies between balance elements have to
be identified and classified. In figure 5 the impact of training
on the CED of PSS in a causal loop diagram is presented. It is
a short example to demonstrate how the CED of PSS can be
influenced by worker training and how many elements have to
be regarded. The interdependencies should to be analysed for
each kind of service type (mentioned in section 2.2).
In the third step the dependencies and impacts based on
control lever have to be analysed and classified according to
the relevance. Another aspect in step 3, is the determination of
cause-effect relationship.
The last step is measures for reducing the CED of PSS have
to be identified. For this purpose, control lever have to be
evaluated and described in a final approach for a systematic
reduction of CED of PSS.
4. Conclusion
Due to a missing concept for evaluating the sustainability of
complex solutions and determining the CED of PSS, an
approach to analyse and reduce the CED of PSS is generated
and presented. The approach aims in developing an ecological
assessment of products and services as one system and consists
of four main steps. The first two steps which are the analysis of
PSS-specific requirements and the definition of PSS-specific
functional unit and systems boundary were presented and
explained. The last two steps of the approach are the analysis
of dependencies and impacts of PSS changes on the CED as
well the identification of measures to reduce the CED. These
steps and a validation of the approach based on use cases will
be illustrated in further work. Use cases are planned from the
machine tool industry, agricultural machine industry or wind
turbine industry to prove the practicability of the approach. The
results of this project will enable to control and optimize the
sustainability of PSS.
Acknowledgement
This research was funded by the German research
+ foundation (DFG) within the IRTG 2057 “Physical Modeling
Reliability for Virtual Manufacturing Systems and Processes”.
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