Optimal scheduling of a natural gas processing facility with Price-based Demand Response

This paper presents an optimal scheduling algorithm for a natural gas processing facility. Priced-based Demand Response (PBDR) has been implemented into the formulation by adjusting the facility´s production level to respond to the real time price (RTP) of electricity in order to maximize the plant´s profit. Industrial facilities that own generation units are a good target for PBDR. When the RTP of electricity increases, co-generation system output can be increased to reduce the consumption of utility power and even supply power to the utility. The plant production level, which may depend on co-generation output, is also sensitive to RTP within a reasonable range of electricity prices. A mixed integer programming (MIP) method is used in this paper to solve the optimal scheduling problem.