General Modeling of Interconnected Hubs in Series and Parallel Structures

Energy decision-makers have considered solutions to meet the demand for affordable and highly reliable energy due to population growth and technological advancement. One of these possibilities is the utilization of several energy carriers in one system as an energy hub. Instead of optimizing a single energy carrier, the energy hub optimizes a system with many energy carriers, including electricity, natural gas, and local heat, by use of its converters and storages. In this paper, a novel and new general framework is proposed to evaluate and compare both series and parallel connections of n hub to analyze cost and reliability aspects by considering coupling matrices. In order to compare the outcomes of the connections of several comparable hubs in both series and parallel modes, new indices are proposed and evaluated from the aspect of evaluating the amount of energy not supplied and the amount of energy input to each hub. Additionally, simulations are run for a variety of scenarios in order to better assess the proposed model and investigate each type of connection by evaluating the proposed performance indices. The results show that in all the examined scenarios, the total cost of the energy carriers in the series mode (link in the output) is lower than in the parallel mode (link in the input).

Automated summary

Energy decision-makers are exploring the use of energy hubs, which optimize systems with multiple energy carriers, to meet the growing demand for affordable and reliable energy. This paper proposes a novel framework to evaluate and compare series and parallel connections of energy hubs, considering cost and reliability aspects. New indices are introduced to assess the amount of energy not supplied and the energy input for each hub. Simulations are conducted to validate the proposed model and investigate different connection types. The results demonstrate that the total cost of energy carriers is lower in the series mode compared to the parallel mode.