Seminar: Gas-Aware Unit Commit Commitment

Seminar by Pascal Van Hentenryck

A. Russell Chandler III Chair and Professor

H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering

Georgia Institute of Technology

Recent changes in the fuel mix for electricity generation and, in particular, the increase in Gas-Fueled Power Plants (GFPP), have created significant interdependencies between the electrical power and natural gas transmission systems. However, despite their physical and economic couplings, these networks are still operated independently, which may lead to significant economic and reliability risks.  To mitigate these risks, while preserving the current structure of the markets, this research explores the idea of introducing gas network awareness into the standard unit commitment model. We propose a tri-level mathematical program where natural gas zonal prices are given by the dual solutions of natural-gas flux conservation constraints and commitment decisions are subject to bid-validity constraints that ensure the economic viability of the committed GFPPs. The approach is validated on a case study for the Northeastern United States that can reproduce the gas and electricity price spikes experienced during the early winter of 2014. The results demonstrate that gas awareness in unit commitment is instrumental in avoiding the peaks in electricity prices while keeping the gas prices to reasonable levels.

Joint Work with Geunyeong Byeon (UM)

Pascal Van Hentenryck is the A. Russell Chandler III Chair and Professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Prior to this appointment, Van Hentenryck was a Professor of Computer Science at Brown University for 20 years, the leader of the Optimization Research Group at National ICT Australia (about 70 people), and the Seth  Bonder Collegiate Professor at the University of Michigan. Van Hentenryck is an INFORMS Fellow and a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). Several of his optimization systems, including OPL and CHIP, have been in commercial use for more than 20 years. Van Hentenryck’s current research is focusing artificial intelligence and operations research with applications in energy systems, transportation, resilience, and privacy.