Collaborative Research: Planning for Uncertainty in Coupled Water-Power Distribution Networks

该项目的目标是在社区或城市的物理规模上开发城市饮用水和电力耦合配电网联合运行的方法。耗电的供水网络设备，如水泵，可以通过转移抽水负荷为电网提供灵活性。水网为电网提供的灵活性提高了电网的可靠性，进而提高了水网的可靠性。此外，提高电网运行的灵活性可以降低运营成本，并有助于配电网纳入更高的可再生能源渗透率。该项目将为不确定情况下的水-电耦合网络制定业务规划和实时控制战略，为灵活性制定经济合同，评估网络对新的业务/控制战略和经济机制的复原力，并更新这些新方法，以维持或改进目前的复原力水平。这项研究将有助于提高水电耦合系统的经济性、环境影响、可靠性和弹性。此外，这项研究将通过与电力和自来水公司合作伙伴的合作产生实际影响。该团队将向研究社区和实践者传播他们的成果，开发课程材料，并为代表性不足的研究生和本科生提供多学科研究经验。该项目将在优化、经济合同设计、弹性建模、电力系统和供水网络等领域做出贡献。任务1将开发在水力-电力耦合网络建模和解决在两个网络的耦合运行中出现的具有挑战性的随机优化问题方面的最先进的方法。任务2将制定设计经济合同的方法，以确保水公司和电力公司之间的协调，并激励客户。任务3将推进对谁面临基础设施易受危害的公平性的建模和分析。虽然以前的工作制定了衡量人口中基本服务损失不平等的一般框架，但这一框架尚未与详细的基础设施业绩模型相结合。该项目将建立这一关键联系，提高考虑旨在改善系统性能的干预措施可能无意中出现的脆弱性方面潜在不平等的能力。这对于避免对弱势群体产生负面的、意想不到的后果至关重要。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The goal of this project is to develop approaches for the joint operation of coupled municipal drinking water and electric power distribution networks at the physical scale of neighborhoods or cities. Electricity-consuming water network equipment such as water pumps can provide flexibility to electricity networks by shifting pumping load. Flexibility provided by the water network to the power network increases power network reliability, in turn increasing water network reliability. Further, increased flexibility in power network operation reduces operational costs and can help electric power distribution network incorporate higher penetrations of renewable energy resources. The project will develop operational planning and real-time control strategies for coupled water-power networks under uncertainty, develop economic contracts for flexibility, assess network resilience to new operational/control strategies and economic mechanisms, and update these new approaches to maintain or improve upon current levels of resilience. This research will help improve the economics, environmental impact, reliability, and resilience of coupled water-power systems. Further, the research will have practical impacts through collaboration with electric and water utility partners. The team will disseminate their results to the research community and practitioners, develop curriculum materials, and provide multidisciplinary research experiences for underrepresented graduate and undergraduate students.The project will contribute to the fields of optimization, economic contract design, resilience modeling, electric power systems, and water networks. Task 1 will develop approaches for advancing the state-of-the-art in coupled water-power network modeling and solving the challenging stochastic optimization problems that arise in the coupled operation of the two networks. Task 2 will develop approaches to design economic contracts to ensure coordination of the water and electric companies and incentivization of the customers. Task 3 will advance the modeling and analysis of equity in who faces infrastructure vulnerability from hazards. While previous work developed a general framework for measuring inequity in the loss of essential services across a population, this has not been integrated with detailed infrastructure performance models. This project will make this critical linkage, advancing the ability to consider potential inequities in vulnerability that may inadvertently arise from interventions intended to improve system performance. This is critical to avoid having negative, unintended consequences on vulnerable sub-populations.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.