Optimization of site utility systems for renewable energy integration

Abstract

Considerable attention has been paid to the electrified energy supply based on renewable energy for achieving carbon-neutrality. A systematic and integrated approach is required to identify optimal operating strategies for the integration of electrified energy sources with conventional utility systems and to understand the techno-economic impact of using renewable energy on industrial energy management. Renewable-integrated industrial utility systems are modeled, which is optimized to investigate economic trade-off between capital investment, fuel consumption, power generation, and CO2 emission tax. Sensitivity of key design parameters is examined with the optimization framework, which allows to gain conceptual understanding on the economic impact of CO2 emission tax and prices of renewable electricity on site-wide heat and power management. Compared to the utility system based on the combustion of fossil fuels only, the operating cost of renewable-integrated system in the case study can be reduced about 14% in the operating cost and 9% in the capital cost through the strategic import of 20 MWe renewable electricity. The presented case studies fully illustrate economic impacts related to the implementation of renewable electricity to industrial utility systems and demonstrate the benefit of process-integrated optimization for renewable energy integration in practice.