Embedding of temperature-dependent plant model into time-discrete scheduling formulation

Abstract

In the light of growing renewable energy generation, demand side management (DSM) has been recognized as one of the key enablers for the energy transition. In order to offer the highest potential for grid stabilization regarding DSM, industrial processes must be designed for the requirement relating thereto. This work focuses on the design of an air separation unit (ASU), whereby design decisions are assessed via operational simulations based on a scheduling formulation. To improve these simulations in terms of simulation accuracy and computing speed, an approach is proposed to embed a realistic plant description into a mixed-integer linear programming-based discrete-time scheduling formulation. This approach is subsequently used to integrate a temperature-dependent plant performance of an ASU into a sophisticated scheduling formulation. The resulting model is applied to investigate whether the temperature-dependent performance has a significant effect on the operational scheduling and, perhaps, even on the design of an ASU.