Multi-area predictive control for combined electricity and natural gas systems

The optimal operation of an integrated electricity and natural gas system is investigated. The couplings between these two systems are modeled by energy hubs, which serve as interface between the loads and the transmission infrastructures. Previously, we have applied a distributed control scheme to a static three-hub benchmark system. In this paper, we propose an extension of this distributed control scheme for application to energy hubs with dynamics. The dynamics that we consider here are due to storage devices present in the multi-carrier system. We propose a distributed model predictive control approach for improving the operation of the system by taking into account predicted behavior and operational constraints. Simulations in which the proposed scheme is applied to the three-hub benchmark system illustrate the potential of the approach.