Water-Energy Management for Demand Charges and Energy Cost Optimization of a Pumping Stations System under a Renewable Virtual Power Plant Model

Abstract

The effects of climate change seriously affect agriculture at different latitudes of the planet because periods of drought are intensifying and the availability of water for agricultural irrigation is reducing. In addition, the energy cost associated with pumping water has increased notably in recent years due to, among other reasons, the maximum demand charges that are applied annually according to the contracted demand in each facility. Therefore, very efficient management of both water resources and energy resources is required. This article proposes the integration of water-energy management in a virtual power plant (VPP) model for the optimization of energy costs and maximum demand charges. For the development of the model, a problem related to the optimal operation of electricity generation and demand resources arises, which is formulated as a nonlinear mixed-integer programming model (MINLP). The objective is to maximize the annual operating profit of the VPP. It is worth mentioning that the model is applied to a large irrigation system using real data on consumption and power generation, exclusively renewable. In addition, different scenarios are analyzed to evaluate the variability of the operating profit of the VPP with and without intraday demand management as well as the influence of the wholesale electricity market price on the model. In view of the results obtained, the model that integrates the management of the water-energy binomial increases the self-consumption of renewable energy and saves electricity supply costs.

Operational scheduling of responsive prosumer farms for day‐ahead peak shaving by agricultural demand response aggregators

“…Inequality (26) determines upper and lower thresholds for the SoC. Equations (27) and (28) illustrate the rate of charging and discharging, respectively.…”

“…Higher energy use efficiency and lower energy costs are two main advantages of the approach. In Ref.,27 an energy management approach was suggested to integrate the flexibility potentials of water‐energy consumption into a virtual power plant. The study was successful in increasing the self‐consumption of renewable energy and decreasing electricity supply costs.…”

Energy–Water Management System Based on MPC for a Greenhouse in a Mapuche Indigenous Community

“…Some works have also studied the possibility of integrating energy-water management systems into the overall grid. For example, in the PV system proposed in [9], with the constraint of minimizing the irrigation deficit, excess energy could be bought or sold to the overall grid, and a model was trained to minimize energy costs. Finally, in [10], a robust control approach was used to optimize the performance of a PV irrigation system connected to an overall grid, where the energy cost and irrigation deficit were minimized considering a worst-case scenario for the future price of energy from the grid.…”

Effectiveness of Measures to Reduce the Influence of Global Climate Change on Tomato Cultivation in Solariums. Case Study: CrișUrilor Plain, Bihor, Romania

“…Numerous researches on the architecture of SPAPV have shown that, in order to improve the efficiency of water use, increase distribution uniformity and increase yield, at directly pumping systems [46], (that pump water only when PV captures solar radiation), water storage tanks [47], or accumulators (batteries) have to be added. The arrangements for localized irrigation with a water storage tank allow the administration of water to the plant when the energy generated by PV is not enough [48]. The SPAPV can be easily installed near the place of consumption, and the area occupied by PV can be optimized, which is why they are often used for irrigating tomatoes grown in solariums [49].…”