A Mathematical Approach to Improve Energy-Water Nexus Reliability Using a Novel Multi-Stage Adjustable Fuzzy Robust Approach

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel multi-stage adjustable fuzzy robust optimization method to enhance the reliability of the energy-water nexus by effectively managing uncertainties and resource interdependencies.

Contribution

It presents a new mathematical approach that improves energy-water resource planning by balancing robustness and cost-effectiveness in complex, uncertain systems.

Findings

The proposed method produces flexible, robust decisions.

It reduces costs compared to conservative approaches.

Scenario analysis confirms effectiveness in resource management.

Abstract

A system of a systems approach that analyzes energy and water systems simultaneously is called energy-water nexus. Neglecting the interrelationship between energy and water drives vulnerabilities whereby limits on one resource can cause constraints on the other resource. Power plant energy production directly depends on water availability, and an outage of the power systems will affect the wastewater treatment facility processes. Therefore, it is essential to integrate energy and water planning models. As mathematical energy-water nexus problems are complex, involve many uncertain parameters, and are large-scale, we proposed a novel multi-stage adjustable Fuzzy robust approach that balances the solutions' robustness against the budget-constraints. Scenario-based analysis indicates that the proposed approach generates flexible and robust decisions that avoid excessive costs compared to conservative methods. Keywords: Energy-water Nexus, Renewable Energy, Optimization under Uncertainty, Fuzzy logic, Robust Optimization