Distributed scheduling of multi-carrier energy systems considering integrated demand response program and load volatility

Abstract

Due to the higher energy efficiency as well as the higher flexibility and reliability of energy supply, multi-carrier energy systems (MCESs) have attracted extensive attention. However, the power imbalance caused by uncertainty, the complicated couplings among multiple carriers, and the communication obstacles among multiple MCESs bring challenges to the synergistic scheduling of multiple MCESs. To this end, this paper studies the synergistic scheduling of multi-MCES coupled with electricity, natural gas, heating, and cooling carriers, considering integrated demand response (IDR) program and load volatility. First, an IDR program with electricity, heating, and cooling loads is proposed, where the consumers can change their energy consumption patterns in response to price signals to reduce operating costs. Second, to smooth the electricity load curve and avoid load fluctuations, load volatility is taken into account when implementing the IDR program. In addition, the non-convex constraints of natural gas network are tackled via second-order cone relaxation, and the scheduling of multi-MCES is reformulated as mixed integer second-order cone programming (MISOCP). Finally, the synergistic scheduling model of multi-MCES considering IDR program and load volatility is solved by consensus-based alternating direction method of multipliers with limited boundary information exchange with neighboring MCESs. Numerical results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed distributed IDR program in a multi-MCES.