Abstract Achieving climate neutrality in Europe by 2050 requires a fundamental transformation of the energy system. As renewable integration accelerates, cross-sectoral technologies and green gases are gaining importance as flexible assets to support the electricity system. This transition increases the need for gas network models that are both computationally tractable and physically accurate—especially for large-scale, quasi-dynamic applications. This paper introduces two globally convex gas flow formulations based on polyhedral McCormick-type relaxations of the nonlinear Weymouth equation. Further, two compressor relaxations are introduced that retain the models’ convex structure. These models capture the bidirectional flow dynamics of pipelines and the operating modes of compressors without relying on mixed-integer variables, enabling scalable optimization. A comprehensive benchmark against established flow models—including mixed-integer and linear approximations—demonstrates the proposed formulations’ ability to balance fidelity and efficiency. The models are critically assessed in terms of approximation accuracy to the Weymouth equation and applied to a real-world case study of the German gas transmission network. Results show that the proposed relaxations achieve competitive accuracy compared to state-of-the-art mixed-integer models while significantly reducing computational burden. Their robustness, scalability, and physical consistency highlight their potential as a practical modeling tool for future gas and hydrogen infrastructure studies and integrated energy system planning.
Schinke-Nendza et al. (Sat,) studied this question.