Water-Energy Management for Demand Charges and Energy Cost Optimization of a Pumping Stations System under a Renewable Virtual Power Plant Model

Natalia Naval and Jose M. Yusta
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Natalia Naval: Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Zaragoza, C/Maria de Luna 3, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain
Jose M. Yusta: Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Zaragoza, C/Maria de Luna 3, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 11, 1-21

Abstract: The effects of climate change seriously affect agriculture at different latitudes of the planet because periods of drought are intensifying and the availability of water for agricultural irrigation is reducing. In addition, the energy cost associated with pumping water has increased notably in recent years due to, among other reasons, the maximum demand charges that are applied annually according to the contracted demand in each facility. Therefore, very efficient management of both water resources and energy resources is required. This article proposes the integration of water-energy management in a virtual power plant (VPP) model for the optimization of energy costs and maximum demand charges. For the development of the model, a problem related to the optimal operation of electricity generation and demand resources arises, which is formulated as a nonlinear mixed-integer programming model (MINLP). The objective is to maximize the annual operating profit of the VPP. It is worth mentioning that the model is applied to a large irrigation system using real data on consumption and power generation, exclusively renewable. In addition, different scenarios are analyzed to evaluate the variability of the operating profit of the VPP with and without intraday demand management as well as the influence of the wholesale electricity market price on the model. In view of the results obtained, the model that integrates the management of the water-energy binomial increases the self-consumption of renewable energy and saves electricity supply costs.

Keywords: virtual power plant; water-energy management; optimization; demand charges; renewable generation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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