The Institute for Energy Efficiency in Production conducts research on topics that aim to reduce energy consumption in manufacturing, for example through the application of energy-efficient technologies and intelligent control of energy use. Alongside the increased coverage of energy demand through renewable energies, the increase in energy efficiency forms the second pillar of the energy transition.

In various committees, the EEP develops decision-making bases for politics and society. For example, the EEP is actively involved in the Industrial Energy Efficiency Accelerator Implementation Committee of the UN SE4ALL (Sustainable Energy for All).

The EEP was founded in 2012 with funding from the Karl Schlecht Foundation and the Heinz and Heide Dürr Foundation in cooperation with the Fraunhofer IPA at the University of Stuttgart. In addition to relevant research and teaching, the institute has the task of educating and advising society, politics and companies about energy efficiency in production.

The EEP's main areas of expertise focus in particular on industrial processes and technologies in order to be able to derive and quantify both short-term and long-term energy-saving potential. Smart grids offer the potential to master challenges in the energy system, such as the growth of renewable energies, the decentralisation of energy generation and the change from pure consumers to prosumers. Against this backdrop, the EEP is working on the networking of energy consumers, generators and storage, among other things, as part of the Fast Storage BW research project.

The EEP is further developing existing smart grid approaches with the aim of optimising their use in DC-supplied machines and plants through supply-secure, energy-flexible and energy-efficient production control systems. The aim is to increase the flexibility and efficiency of the use of DC technology for drive technology. To illustrate the energy relationship in the smart DC grid, the EEP is building a simulation and experimentation environment that makes it possible to simulate and network individual system components in distributed computer systems by means of system-oriented decentralised architecture and thus to investigate the mode of operation of the most diverse system implementations.