MODELING AND OPTIMIZATION ASPECTS IN ENERGY MANAGEMENT AND PLANT-OPERATION WITH VARIABLE-ENERGY DEMANDS-APPLICATION TO INDUSTRIAL-PROBLEMS

While formal methods to account for uncertainty in process optimizatio n have been developed in the literature, little use of this research w ork has been reported for industrial applications. An attempt is made in this paper to integrate techniques for modelling and optimization u nder uncertainty in order to explore flexible operating scenaria and e nergy management schemes of real industrial utility systems. Multiperi od optimization principles are employed to account for variable demand s and/or uncertain operating conditions, while discrete operating deci sions (e.g. switching on/off a piece of equipment) are explicitly cons idered, enhancing, thus, the concept of operating cost for flexible op eration. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.