Joint operation of mobile battery, power system, and transportation system for improving the renewable energy penetration rate

Future energy system will feature in a high-share of renewable energies (REs), which poses huge challenges to obtain full utilization of renewable power generation. To solve the problem, this paper presents a joint-operation two-stage mixed integer linear programming model to coordinate the power system and train transportation system by optimizing the logistics of mobile batteries and real-time charge/discharge in cities. The full/empty batteries are transported through the train transportation system between the load side and the renewable energy station, which improves renewable energy penetration, economics, and mobilities. The first-stage model deals with the preliminary logistic optimization of batteries including routes, time and capacities of transportation, and the second-stage model optimizes real-time schedule of charge/discharge of batteries. The aim of the proposed model is to minimize the transportation cost, maximize the utilization rate of renewable energy in an energy system and smooth the daily load curve. The proposed model considers technical constraints such as railway transportation capacity, load demand satisfaction and renewable energy consumption in the power system. The optimal logistics plan and real-time charging and discharging plan can be obtained for both full and empty battery transportation. The validity of the method is verified with real data from Northeast China and Northern China, including railway routes, renewable energy output, and load profiles. The results show that the renewable energy penetration rate increases from 84.4% to 95.3% in Northeast China and from 42.7% to 78.2% in Northern China under the 2050 scenario with the proposed method. The peak-to-valley difference in the daily load curve decreases by 84% and 100% in Northeast China and Northern China, respectively. Meanwhile, the case study shows that the costs of battery transportation decrease from 0.398 CNY/kWh and 0.377 CNY/kWh to 0.252 CNY/kWh and 0.254 CNY/kWh when energy density of battery increases from 0.170 kWh/kg to 0.250 kWh/kg. This indicates that mobile energy storage has great economics. Moreover, renewable energy penetration rate is increased and peak-to-valley difference of daily load curve is decreased with no additional transmission lines.