Energy Systems Integration in Smart Districts: Robust Optimisation of Multi-Energy Flows in Integrated Electricity, Heat and Gas Networks

Smart districts can provide flexibility from emerging distributed multi-energy technologies, thus bringing benefits to the district and the wider energy system. However, due to nonlinearity and modeling complexity, constraints associated with the internal energy network (e.g., electricity, heat, and gas) and operational uncertainties (for example, in energy demand) are often overlooked. For this purpose, a robust operational optimization framework for smart districts with multi-energy devices and integrated energy networks is proposed. The framework is based on two-stage iterative modeling that involves mixed integer linear programming (MILP) and linear approximations of the nonlinear network equations. In the MILP optimization stage, the time-ahead set points of all controllable devices (e.g., electrical and thermal storage) are optimized considering uncertainty and a linear approximation of the integrated electricity, heat, and gas networks. The accuracy of the linear model is then improved at a second stage by using a detailed nonlinear integrated network model, and through iterations between the models in the two stages. To efficiently model uncertainty and improve computational efficiency, multi-dimensional linked lists are also used. The proposed approach is illustrated with a real U.K. district; the results demonstrate the model's ability to capture network limits and uncertainty, which is critical to assess flexibility under stressed conditions.