Optimal energy management of an industrial consumer in liberalized markets

This paper presents an optimization model for mid-term management of a thermal and electricity supply system of an industrial consumer under liberalized energy markets. Electricity is supplied from the electric grid or from a gas engine, while thermal energy is satisfied through a boiler or the mentioned gas engine. The objective is to minimize the overall annual energy supply costs in order to make optimal contracting decisions. Mixed-integer linear programming is applied to solve the problem since binary decision and operation variables have been employed. A realistic case is presented to illustrate the model capabilities.