Optimal operations management of residential energy supply networks with power and heat interchanges

An optimal operations management system of residential energy supply networks employing power and heat interchanges among cogeneration units and storage tanks was developed. This system integrated energy demand prediction, operation scheduling to predicted energy demand using mixed-integer linear programming, and real-time control for the cogeneration units and the heat interchange hierarchically. The energy demand prediction and operation scheduling were updated using a receding horizon approach. The novelty of the study is characterized by developing an operations management framework for heat interchange among storage tanks and by proposing an event-driven receding horizon approach. The developed operations management system was applied to annual operating simulation of a residential energy supply network, consisting of four fuel cell-based cogeneration units and four storage tanks. The results showed that employing the power and heat interchanges increases a reduction rate of annual primary energy consumption by 3.24 and 5.63 percentage points relative to the power interchange operation and separate operation of the cogeneration units, respectively. Moreover, the event-driven receding horizon approach based on heat interchange schedule maintained an energy-saving performance subequal to the conventional receding horizon approach and reduced the daily receding number by 46.7% of the conventional receding horizon approach. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.