Robust Scheduling of Water and Energy Hub Considering CAES, Power-to-Gas Units, and Demand Response Programs

The smart energy hub framework encompasses physical assets such as thermal storage, boiler, wind turbine, PV panel, water storage and, water desalination unit to ensure continuity of electricity, water, thermal, and gas provision in the case of unexpected outages in the upstream networks. In this regard, the smart energy hub as an integrated structure provides a suitable platform for energy supply. Considering the drinking water resources in the smart hub structure can cause operational efficiency improvement. This paper proposes an integrated scheduling model for energy and water supply. To address the issue of increasing operational flexibility, a set of new technologies such as Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) and Power-to-Gas (P2G) system are provided. Also, the energy price is modeled as an uncertain parameter using a robust optimization approach. The proposed model is established as a Mixed Integer Linear Function (MILP). The mentioned model is implemented using the CPLEX solver in GAMS software. The proposed model is simulated in different scenarios in the energy hub and the optimization results are compared with each other to validate the proposed method. The results show that using CAES technology and the P2G system can lead to reducing the operating costs to a desirable level. Moreover, the impact of the P2G unit on the operation cost is more than the CAES unit. The energy hub operator should tradeoff between robustness and operation cost of the system. The obtained results ensured that the proposed methodology was robust, optimal, and economical for energy hub schedules.