Regional Resource Management Composite Curve

A two-level approach to biomass supply chain synthesis based on a novel Regional Energy Clustering (REC) approach has been proposed. There are two main parts of the regional resources management. The first consists of forming clusters of zones for biomass management. The second part builds a Regional Resources Management Composite Curve (RRMCC). Generating a biomass transfer network between the various zones in a given region is an optimisation task determining the links and the biomass flows from the available energy surplus zones to the deficit zones. This is followed by grouping the zones into clusters using the combination of links and the overall energy imbalance as an objective function to be minimised. The information about the clusters is further plotted in the RRMCC with the cumulative land use on the y-axis and cumulative energy surplus-deficit as x-axis. This graphical representation shows the magnitude or the imbalance within each cluster and provides a tool for analysing the trade-off between land use and biomass generation, thus aiding regional planners in analysing the optimal land use on the one hand and the regional energy management surpluses and deficits on the other.