CONCEPTUAL OPTIMIZATION OF UTILITY NETWORKS USING HARDWARE AND COMPREHENSIVE HARDWARE COMPOSITES

The decommissioning of utility services has resulted in increasing nee ds for optimisation technology that will enable the efficient and econ omic operation of utility networks, Typical networks consist of rich c ombinations of operational units and feature choices for turbines of d ifferent types and operational characteristics. The appropriate select ion, loading and operation of the turbines requires integer and contin uous variables that give rise to Mixed Integer Non Linear Programming formulations. Even in simplified versions of the problem where efficie ncy is treated as a constant, the optimisation effort is impeded by mo del complexities (nonconvexities, size) that diminish the importance a nd impact of the results. A conceptual tool introduced in the form of Hardware Composites is extended here to cover more realistic and compl icated turbine networks including multiple levels, friction losses, al located turbines and letdown valves. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. Al l rights reserved.