Planning of Off-Grid Renewable Power to Ammonia Systems with Heterogeneous Flexibility: A Multistakeholder Equilibrium Perspective

TL;DR

This paper develops a multistakeholder equilibrium model for off-grid renewable ammonia systems, addressing equipment sizing and stakeholder interests to facilitate sustainable and balanced project planning.

Contribution

It introduces a novel multistakeholder equilibrium framework and optimization approach for planning off-grid renewable ammonia systems considering stakeholder heterogeneity.

Findings

Stakeholder interests often conflict, requiring benefit transfer strategies.

The proposed model effectively balances long-term operational and economic considerations.

Case studies demonstrate the importance of stakeholder re-arrangement for project success.

Abstract

Off-grid renewable power to ammonia (ReP2A) systems present a promising pathway toward carbon neutrality in both the energy and chemical industries. However, due to chemical safety requirements, the limited flexibility of ammonia synthesis poses a challenge when attempting to align with the variable hydrogen flow produced from renewable power. This necessitates the optimal sizing of equipment capacity for effective and coordinated production across the system. Additionally, an ReP2A system may involve multiple stakeholders with varying degrees of operational flexibility, complicating the planning problem. This paper first examines the multistakeholder sizing equilibrium (MSSE) of the ReP2A system. First, we propose an MSSE model that accounts for individual planning decisions and the competing economic interests of the stakeholders of power generation, hydrogen production, and ammonia synthesis. We then construct an equivalent optimization problem based on Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions to determine the equilibrium. Following this, we decompose the problem in the temporal dimension and solve it via multicut generalized Benders decomposition (GBD) to address long-term balancing issues. Case studies based on a realistic project reveal that the equilibrium does not naturally balance the interests of all stakeholders due to their heterogeneous characteristics. Our findings suggest that benefit transfer or re-arrangement ensure mutual benefits and the successful implementation of ReP2A projects.