A general framework for supporting economic feasibility of generator and storage energy systems through capacity and dispatch optimization

TL;DR

This paper presents a versatile computational framework that enables efficient economic feasibility assessment of integrated energy systems with various generation and storage technologies through capacity and dispatch optimization.

Contribution

It introduces a linear convex optimization framework for early-stage economic assessment of diverse energy system configurations, integrating physical and economic dynamics.

Findings

Framework effectively evaluates economic viability of different energy setups.

Demonstrated with case studies on gas, wind, and nuclear systems.

Computationally efficient and adaptable for various configurations.

Abstract

Integration of various electricity-generating technologies (such as natural gas, wind, nuclear, etc.) with storage systems (such as thermal, battery electric, hydrogen, etc.) has the potential to improve the economic competitiveness of modern energy systems. Driven by the need to efficiently assess the economic feasibility of various energy system configurations in early system concept development, this work outlines a versatile computational framework for assessing the net present value of various integrated storage technologies. The subsystems' fundamental dynamics are defined, with a particular emphasis on balancing critical physical and economic domains to enable optimal decision-making in the context of capacity and dispatch optimization. In its presented form, the framework formulates a linear, convex optimization problem that can be efficiently solved using a direct transcription approach in the open-source software DTQP. Three case studies demonstrate and validate the framework's capabilities, highlighting its value and computational efficiency in facilitating the economic assessment of various energy system configurations. In particular, natural gas with thermal storage and carbon capture, wind energy with battery storage, and nuclear with hydrogen are demonstrated.