Shrinking and receding horizon approaches for long-term operational planning of energy storage and supply systems

To efficiently solve long-term operational planning problems of energy storage and supply systems, a near-optimal solution method based on the shrinking and receding horizon approaches was developed. A lower bound of the original problem is first calculated by solving a simplified problem, in which the number of binary variables is reduced and the related constraints are simplified. Then, a short-term operational planning problem, with a shrunken planning horizon length, is solved by providing the simplified problem results as the terminal condition for stored energy. Within this problem, the original binary variables and constraints are considered. The short-term operational planning is updated using a receding horizon approach, in which the initial and terminal conditions are provided by the previous short-term operational planning results and simplified problem results, respectively. The solution, obtained by connecting the solutions in all the updating horizons, is regarded as a near-optimal solution of the original problem. The developed method was applied to solve a long-term operational planning problem for an energy storage and supply system, which includes a photovoltaic unit and a metal hydride tank with a water electrolyzer. The results showed that the developed method could find a better solution in a shorter computation time than the conventional methods. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The developed method efficiently solves long-term operational planning problems for energy storage and supply systems by shrinking and receding horizon approaches. By simplifying the problem and shortening the planning horizon length, the method provides a near-optimal solution within a shorter computation time compared to conventional methods. It considers original binary variables and constraints while updating the short-term operational planning using a receding horizon approach.