Abstract
The effects of climate change seriously affect agriculture at different latitudes of the planet because periods of drought are intensifying and the availability of water for agricultural irrigation is reducing. In addition, the energy cost associated with pumping water has increased notably in recent years due to, among other reasons, the maximum demand charges that are applied annually according to the contracted demand in each facility. Therefore, very efficient management of both water resources and energy resources is required. This article proposes the integration of water-energy management in a virtual power plant (VPP) model for the optimization of energy costs and maximum demand charges. For the development of the model, a problem related to the optimal operation of electricity generation and demand resources arises, which is formulated as a nonlinear mixed-integer programming model (MINLP). The objective is to maximize the annual operating profit of the VPP. It is worth mentioning that the model is applied to a large irrigation system using real data on consumption and power generation, exclusively renewable. In addition, different scenarios are analyzed to evaluate the variability of the operating profit of the VPP with and without intraday demand management as well as the influence of the wholesale electricity market price on the model. In view of the results obtained, the model that integrates the management of the water-energy binomial increases the self-consumption of renewable energy and saves electricity supply costs.
Highlights
Since 1998, the Spanish electricity market has been liberalized, which means that both the generation of electricity and the purchase of energy by consumers are open to competition
The virtual power plant (VPP) purchases the necessary energy in the electricity market when it cannot deliver the requested demand with its own sources of renewable generation
Improving the competitiveness of farms requires the development of new innovative strategies for water and energy management
Summary
Since 1998, the Spanish electricity market has been liberalized, which means that both the generation of electricity and the purchase of energy by consumers are open to competition. Liberalization seeks to achieve greater efficiency in investments and operation of electrical systems and reduce costs and increase the quality and reliability of electricity supply In this current legal framework of the electricity sector, all consumers, in addition to paying for the purchase of energy in the hourly production market, are obliged to pay some charges (network access fees) for the use of transportation and distribution, regulated by the Spanish government. The proposed model is a mixed-integer nonlinear programming model (MINLP) that aims us to maximize the annual operating profit of a VPP that participates in the wholesale electricity market through optimal planning of the annual contracted electricity demand and hourly power generation resources.
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