Storage sizing for a micro gas grid of prosumers

This paper studies optimal control of a micro grid of biogas
prosumers. The biogas production is kept at a nearly
constant level due to the time and effort associated with
establishing the right microbial populations. However, as
(bio)gas is predominantly used for space heating, the consumption
level fluctuates over a year due to climate and
weather patterns. It leads to mismatch between supply and
demand that prosumers can mitigate by using local storage
device. The prosumers may contribute to supply-demand
balance of other prosumers by selling their excess production.
Furthermore, excess production can be upgraded
and injected into the low-pressure gas grid or, alternatively,
shipped per lorry to be used elsewhere in order to create
revenue. Since a storage installation and the integration in
the grid is costly, it is of interest to study which size of the
storage device is best suited and provides the best value for
such integration in the grid. In this paper, given a storage
size we formulate a profit maximization done by maximizing
expected revenue and minimizing all costs involved. In
the end we perform simulations with a realistic average gas
usage pattern over a year to study the impact of storage sizes
on prosumers’ profit.