Optimal Scheduling of Multi-Energy Systems with Flexible Electrical and Thermal Loads

This paper proposes a detailed optimal scheduling model of an exemplar multi-energy system comprising combined cycle power plants (CCPPs), battery energy storage systems, renewable energy sources, boilers, thermal energy storage systems,electric loads and thermal loads. The proposed model considers the detailed start-up and shutdown power trajectories of the gas turbines, steam turbines and boilers. Furthermore, a practical,multi-energy load management scheme is proposed within the framework of the optimal scheduling problem. The proposed load management scheme utilizes the flexibility offered by system components such as flexible electrical pump loads, electrical interruptible loads and a flexible thermal load to reduce the overall energy cost of the system. The efficacy of the proposed model in reducing the energy cost of the system is demonstrated in the context of a day-ahead scheduling problem using four illustrative scenarios.