A novel optimization for liquefied natural gas power plants based on the renewable energy

As the world's energy demand grows, the liquefied natural gas industry is gaining popularity as a cleaner fossil fuel source. The existing economic dispatch models of the liquefied natural gas-fueled oxy-fuel combined cycle integrating the renewable energy sources and the energy storage system are not applicable because of lacking modeling and optimizing of the renewable energy sources and energy storage system. This paper proposed a novel economic dispatch model to maximize the generation benefits for determining the optimal configuration of photovoltaic array panels, wind turbines, and the energy storage battery. We established and decoupled the energy-mass coupling model of a liquefied natural gas-fueled oxy-fuel combined cycle, developed the photovoltaic array panel, the wind turbine, and the storage battery model, and calculated the time-of-use electricity price, levelized cost of energy, and levelized cost of storage energy. The model determined the optimal ratio of the photovoltaic array panel and the wind turbine, the installed capacity of the storage battery, and allocated the power of the renewable energy sources and the online grid properly. The results showed that within 120 h, the renewable energy sources reduced the grid load by 40.81%, and the total generation of the photovoltaic array panel and the wind turbine was only 24.86% and 37.39% of the installed capacity. And the energy storage battery is in dynamic balance, with a net discharge capacity of 298.23 MW. The levelized cost of energy was the key factor affecting photovoltaic array panels/ wind turbines installed capacity. The installed percentage of wind turbines did not affect the energy storage systems capacity but the total economic benefit.