Optimal Scheduling of a Natural Gas Processing Facility with Price-based Demand Response

This paper presents an optimal scheduling algorithm for a natural gas processing facility. Priced-based Demand Response (PBDR) has been implemented into the formulation by adjusting the facility's production level to respond to the real time price (RTP) of electricity in order to maximize the plant's profit. Industrial facilities that own generation units are a good target for PBDR. When the RTP of electricity increases, cogeneration system output can be increased to reduce the consumption of utility power and even supply power to the utility. The plant production level, which may depend on cogeneration output, is also sensitive to RTP within a reasonable range of electricity prices. A mixed integer programming (MIP) method is used in this paper to solve the optimal scheduling problem.