Comparative Time-of-Use and wholesale electricity price-based scheduling in embedded power and natural gas distribution grids penetrated with large renewable generation

Abstract

The sporadic availability of renewable generation can pose serious challenges to the distribution system operator especially under large penetration. Power-to-gas (PtG) units can be proliferated across the power and gas distribution grids to deal with the surplus renewable power by converting that into synthetic natural gas. The existing gas-to-power (GtP) facilities in addition to the emerging PtG units can fully integrate the power and gas distribution grids. In addition, policy makers and regulatory bodies in today's deregulated markets are now relying on private sectors to invest on, own, and operate such facilities. As private investors, PtG and GtP units operators need to know which of the aforementioned scheduling approaches are more profitable; i.e., trading with local distribution companies at Time-of-Use (ToU) rates or with the wholesale market at real-time (RT) prices. This paper proposes an optimization-based model for the joint scheduling of PtG and GtP units in a constrained integrated power and gas grid under large renewable power generations. The numerical studies are conducted to evaluate the performance of the model on test systems using real-world operational data. The paper presents comparative ToU and wholesale price-based scheduling from the economic perspectives in different scenarios. The individual and joint operation of the PtG and GtP units are evaluated under both the ToU and wholesale electricity prices. Multiple operational scenarios are created to comparatively evaluate the operation of the model under the two aforementioned scheduling approaches.