Complementarity-constrained predictive control for efficient gas-balanced hybrid power systems

Abstract

Controlling gas turbines (GTs) efficiently is vital as GTs are used to balance power in onshore/offshore hybrid power systems with variable renewable energy and energy storage. However, predictive control of GTs is non-trivial when formulated as a dynamic optimisation problem due to the semi-continuous operating regions of GTs, which must be included to ensure complete combustion and high fuel efficiency. This paper studies two approaches for handling the semi-continuous operating regions of GTs in hybrid power systems through predictive control, dynamic optimisation, and complementarity constraints. The proposed solutions are qualitatively investigated and compared with baseline controllers in a case study involving GTs, offshore wind, and batteries. While one of the baseline controllers considers fuel efficiency, it employs a continuous formulation, which results in lower efficiency than the two proposed approaches as it does not account for the semi-continuous operating regions of each GT.