In the recent years, manufacturing industries have accounted for one-third of the world total energy consumption and CO2 production. These issues, paired with the growing concern over global warming and increasing energy cost, have led to growing efforts to minimize the energy consumption everywhere, especially in the manufacturing industries. The advancement in computation and information systems have enabled researchers to develop intelligent systems that can be used for power, energy efficient machinery, temperature control, and intelligent scheduling systems that consider both productivity and energy efficiency as their objectives. With the aim of minimizing the energy consumption, researchers have also focused on the production and distribution of electricity. The intelligent techniques have been applied to solve this problem and one of the successful applications is known as “smart grids”. The application of these intelligent technologies is not only limited to manufacturing. It can also be applied to a variety of other fields in order to create a more energy efficient environment.
