Network flexibility regulation by renewable energy hubs using flexibility pricing-based energy management

This article presents the energy management of electrical and thermal networks in the presence of renewable energy hubs to regulate the flexibility of these networks based on flexible pricing services. Hubs consist of renewable sources and bio-waste units in addition to energy storage and responsive loads. The bio-waste unit produces electrical and thermal energy simultaneously. The proposed scheme minimizes the difference between the network's energy cost and the hub's flexibility income. It is subject to the optimal power flow equations and flexibility limitation in networks, operation model of resources, storage, and responsive loads in form of energy hub, and hub flexibility model. Unscented transformation-based stochastic optimization models uncertainties of load, renewable power, and energy price. Finally, the numerical results demonstrate the capability of the proposed scheme in extracting the optimal state of flexibility, operation, and economic situation of electric and thermal networks with optimal energy management of renewable hubs based on flexible pricing services. The inclusion of renewable resources, storage generators, and responsive loads into a renewable hub improves the economic situation by 32.9% and the status of operation indicators of the energy networks by 22.4–42% in condition of 100% flexibility.