Resilience-aware multi-scale integration of distributed energy systems

To cost-competitively harness both renewable and traditional energy sources, the use of large-scale facilities should be considered along with distributed energy systems (DESs), which are networks of small-scale energy production facilities and their associated suppliers, intermediaries, end users, and transportation links. Furthermore, to accurately capture the different operational scales in a DES and integrate long-term planning decisions alongside short-term scheduling decision, a multi-scale approach may be utilized. In this work, we present a multi-scale framework for the design and analysis of cost-competitive and resilient DESs. To this end, the framework integrates: 1) facility location decisions to achieve specified threshold service level; 2) quantitative reliability analysis on individual process modules; and 3) considerations of tradeoff between multiple objectives such as cost, resilience, and sustainability. The framework is applied to a biomass value chain that uses various agricultural waste materials to produce a range of biofuels.