A medium-term hybrid IGDT-Robust optimization model for optimal self scheduling of multi-carrier energy systems

Abstract Introducing new technologies in co-generation and tri-generation systems has led to a rapid growth toward the energy hubs (EHs) as an effective way for coupling among various energy types. On the other hand, the energy systems have usually been exposed to uncertain environments due to the presence of renewable energy sources (RESs) and interaction with the electricity markets. Hence, this paper develops a novel optimization framework based on a hybrid information gap decision theory (IGDT) and robust optimization (RO) to handle the optimal self-scheduling of the EH within a medium-term horizon for large consumers. The proposed mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) framework aims to capture the advantages of both the IGDT and RO techniques in dealing with the complicated binary variables and achieving the worst-case realization arisen from wind turbine generation and day-ahead (DA) electricity market uncertainties. The RO optimization approach is presented to model the DA electricity price uncertainty while the uncertainty related to the wind turbine generations is taken into account by the IGDT. Numerical results validate the capability of the model facing uncertainties. The amount of total operation cost of the EH increases by 8.6 % taking into account the worst-case realization of uncertainties through the proposed hybrid IGDT-RO compared to the case considering perfect information. Besides, the results reveal that optimal decisions can be taken by the operator using the proposed hybrid IGDT-RO model.