COST TD 1207 : Main

Introduction:

At high level, energy systems - and related predictive and prescriptive business analytic (BA) problems -  can be divided into two broad classes: Electrical Energy Systems (EES) and Energy Commodities Systems (ECS, mainly oil and natural gas). In the following two tables for both EES and ECS is presented a cross categorization about time horizon (Strategic, Tactical and Operational) versus types of optimization problems (Planning, Production, etc.). Sometimes in medium (tactical) and long term (strategic) the goals are similar (but not identical). Sometimes instead - as in the case of planning - these goals are inherently strategic and no medium (or short term) activities are considered. Also, some problems can be seen from different angles, and depending on the actual structure of the electricity or gas system or markets. For instance, in production optimization problems for electricity markets, network can be disregarded (or pretty much simplified) but if network management is considered, power plants cannot (unless a static Load Flow is of interest). Finally we observe that while many of these problems could be considered as a single bigger problem, very often in scientific literature - as well as in the industry practice - they are decoupled in a top-down or bottom-up approach depending on the focus, the goals, data availability and ultimately on the ability of the modelers. As just one example, take a large utility, its long term gas portfolio optimization is coupled with fossil fuel power plants usage maybe in an electricity market environment.

The present Wiki has been envisioned with three main goals:

1. being a nimble while comprehensive resource of several real life business problems with a categorized set of pointers to many relevant prescriptive problems for energy systems;
2. being a balanced mix of scientific and industrial views;
3. being so that it will evolve over time in a flexible and dynamic way giving, from time to time, a more scientific or industrial - or even political in a broad sense - weighed perspective.

Each cell of the following two tables, where the cross categorization is meaningful, is then linked to external pages where relevant problems are presented.

A general knowledge of the underlying energy markets may be necessary to understand several of the terms involved in the description of the problems.

Electrical Energy Systems

General purpose solvers

Energy Commodities Systems

Contributor:

Dr Fabrizio Lacalandra, QuanTek