Abstract
•A multiple energy distribution company is proposed to supply various energy demands.•The limitations of power, gas and heat distribution network are considered simultaneously.•Variable mass flow and variable temperature control strategy are considered to model the HDN•The effect of integrated demand response and multi-energy storages is investigated.•A hybrid robust-stochastic approach is adopted to manage uncertainties.
Multi-energy systems have been developed to supply the multi-energy users economically by considering the physical limitations of different energy networks. This paper proposes a new entity called multiple energy distribution company (MEDC) to meet the electricity, gas, and heat demands of consumers in the presence of renewable energy resources (RESs) and multi-energy conversion technologies with the lowest operating cost. To achieve a more accurate scheduling model, a multi-energy flow model is used that involves practical constraints of the power distribution network, Heating distribution network (HDN) and natural gas distribution network simultaneously. A variable mass flow and temperature control strategy is applied in the HDN to make a high-performance energy supply scheme. Multi-energy storage systems (MESSs) and integrated demand response (IDR) are also considered to increase the flexibility of the MEDC for serving multi-type energy demands. Moreover, a hybrid robust-stochastic optimization technique is adopted to handle the system uncertainties, where the uncertainties related to RESs and energy prices are addressed under a scenario-based stochastic programming and a robust optimization technique, respectively. The simulation results demonstrate that the efficient use of MESSs and IDR improves the performance of multi-energy generation units in the presence of multi-energy distribution network constraints and reduces the total operation cost by 15%.