Dispatchable onsite electricity generation evaluation of steel plants considering load uncertainty

Abstract

As a typical energy-intensive industry, the steel industry is usually equipped with an onsite energy supply system, indicating a strong capability in demand response. To meet the market requirements, the dispatchable electricity generation boundaries of the steel plant need to be evaluated. However, the forecast errors of local steam and electric load make it difficult to achieve accurate dispatchable boundaries. This paper proposes a novel method to evaluate the dispatchable boundaries of the energy supply system. A multi-energy system model is developed to characterize the interactions between the gas, steam, and electrical systems of the steel plant. An adaptive robust optimization framework is used to evaluate the dispatchability under the uncertainty of the steam load and the electricity load. The proposed method is tested using data from a real steel plant in Europe. The results show that the energy supply system can effectively dispatch the power generation capacity but will be constrained by the fuel supply rate and ramp rate of the boiler. The uncertainty of the steam load and electric load will cause the shrink of the dispatchable boundaries.