Modeling the Proposal of the Simultaneous Purchases and Sales of Electricity and Gas for the Energy Market in a Microgrid Using the Harmony Search Algorithm

The use of different energy carriers together, known as an energy hub, has been a hot topic of research in recent years amongst scientists and researchers. The term energy hub refers to the simultaneous operation of various infrastructures for energy generation and transfer, which has gained momentum in the form of microgrids (MGs). This paper introduces a new strategy for the optimal performance of an MG consisting of different energy carriers for each day. In a smart distribution network (DN), MGs can reduce their own costs in the previous-day market by bidding on sales and purchases. The sales and purchases bidding problem is challenging due to different uncertainties, however. This paper proposes a two-stage strategy for making an optimal bid on electricity sales and purchases with electricity and gas price dependency in the previous-day and real-time markets for an energy hub. In this model, the MG behavior regarding the electricity and gas energy sales/purchase, the simultaneous effects of electricity and gas prices, as well as the energy carriers’ dependence on one another are all examined. Due to the inherent uncertainty in the sources of clean energy production, the probabilistic model and the production and reduction scenario have been used in the paper to cover this issue. In the proposed grid, energy sales/purchases are presented in a multi-carrier MG in a two-stage model. This model is solved by using the harmony search algorithm in MATLAB. Numeric results demonstrate the benefits of this model in reducing energy hub costs of operation.