Scheduling and control framework for distribution-level systems containing multiple energy carrier systems: Theoretical approach and illustrative example

• A scheduling framework for energy systems with multiple energy carriers was presented.
• A two-level integrated control architecture for multiple energy carrier systems was proposed.
• In the example electricity and gas were considered as input and electricity and heat as output.
• Future work will include the interaction with smart protection algorithms.

Traditional optimization and control techniques are no longer suitable to account for the interactions introduced by new technologies like combined heat and power units (CHP) and renewable sources. In this paper a general optimization framework and a hierarchical control architecture are presented for systems with multiple energy carriers, i.e. electricity, heat, gas, etc. The proposed framework is based on the energy hub approach and is an extension of previous research done in this field.Two-level architectures can be adjusted to fulfill the needs of future power systems, where there will be a higher participation of decentralized generation. Nevertheless, the papers generally focus exclusively on electricity flows, even when they include cogeneration units like fuel cells. For this reason the contribution of this paper is to propose a two-level control strategy that can be applied in systems with multiple energy carriers and to provide an illustrative example in which the results of using the strategy can be observed. The complete framework presented in this paper consists of an optimization algorithm and a real-time control algorithm. The optimization algorithm indicates when to turn on and turn off a generation unit and how much power it should deliver at a certain time period. The optimization is done for a forecasted period of 24 h and the real-time control strategy runs continuously to compensate for the mismatches between the scheduled load and the real load by means of control actions.