Optimal Scheduling of a Natural Gas Processing Facility with Real-time Price Demand Response

Abstract

Demand Response (DR) has been a hot topic since the introduction of the smart grid concept. The USA, Canada, and some European countries are researching the benefits of DR programs and their integration methodology into the electricity market. In the Gulf Region, smart grid received more attention, especially in the area of DR after the implementation of the Gulf Grid Interconnection and the ongoing deregulation effort of the electricity sector in Saudi Arabia. Real-Time Price (RTP) DR (RTPDR) is a type of consumer-based DR (CBDR) that responds to a change in the RTP of electricity. RTPDR can reduce the volatility of energy prices, consumption of fuel and the range of loading. It can also defer capital investment in generation and transmission, improve social welfare, and enable stochastic energy resources that are carbon-free, once it is implemented. RTPDR has not been widely implemented because of the sociological barriers that inhibit its implementation which are not as strong in industrial processes compared to inconvenience. The benefits of RTPDR are the motivation to overcome these barriers as industrial participation is a function of the benefit of RTPDR to the facility’s owner. Current literature discusses the implementation of utility-based DR, which involves involuntary control by the utility, in the industrial sector. The literature also discusses the implementation of CBDR, which involves voluntary control by the consumer, in the residential sector. The contribution of this work is a methodology to quantify the benefits of RTPDR that will influence decisions about implementing RTPDR at a large industrial facility. RTPDR benefits are analyzed by presenting an optimal scheduling algorithm for the industrial facility, which owns a co-generation system. RTPDR is implemented at the facility by adjusting its production level and the co-generation system output to respond to the RTP of electricity by reducing the consumption of utility power and even supply power to the utility. A design study of the parameters that affect the implementation of RTPDR at the process facility is introduced. Then, a study of the integration of a considerable penetration level of RTPDR load into the Saudi Grid is proposed.