1,721,079 research outputs found
A Bi-level Approach for the Stochastic Optimal Operation of Interconnected Microgrids
No full textSmart grid planning and control is becoming a theme of high interest in the last years. This is due to the presence of distributed generation, power from renewable resources and storage systems, to the different actors present over the territory, and to the difficulty of defining appropriate models for decision
support. A bilevel optimal control scheme is proposed for grids characterized by renewable and traditional power production, bidirectional power flows, dynamic storage systems, and stochastic modeling issues. In this scheme, the upper level decision maker (UDM) views the lower level decision makers (LDMs) or microgrids as single nodes. In the statement of the UDM problem, the LDM control strategies are structurally and parametrically constrained inside a nonlinear optimization problem that includes load flow equations. Then, the LDMs can follow references from the UDM and use available information at the local level to solve a stochastic optimization problem. The proposed control architecture has been applied to a specific case study (Savona, Italy
A bi-level approach for the optimal control of flows through a network
No full textThe operational management of traffic flows, controlled
by different decision makers (that do not exchange
information) through a network, gives rise to a common modeling
framework that may find application within different research
areas: road traffic control, hazardous materials transportation,
telecommunication networks, energy systems. In this paper, a
general decision architecture is considered and an application is
provided to the case of the management of fleets of vehicles
that transport hazardous materials (hazmat). The considered
architecture takes into account the presence of different decision
makers. The problem is also characterized by the presence
of several (possibly conflicting) objectives. In the case of hazmat
transportation, such objectives may be the reduction of
economic costs and the containment of the risk (for vehicles
and infrastructures). The considered model includes an upperlevel
decision maker that can take decisions affecting the utility
functions of the lower-level decision makers (LDMs), for example,
changing the tolls for the LDMs, but leaving to such LDMs some
decision capability. A specific case study is considered, relevant
to the management of vehicles carrying hazmat through a critical
infrastructure
An algorithm for the optimal collection of wet waste
No full textThis work refers to the development of an approach for planning wet waste (food waste and other) collection at a metropolitan scale. Some specific modeling features distinguish this specific waste collection problem from the other ones. For instance, there may be significant differences as regards the values of the parameters (such as weight and volume) characterizing the various collection points. As it happens for classical waste collection planning, even in the case of wet waste, one has to deal with difficult combinatorial problems, where the determination of an optimal solution may require a very large computational effort, in the case of problem instances having a noticeable dimensionality. For this reason, in this work, a heuristic procedure for the optimal planning of wet waste is developed and applied to problem instances drawn from a real case study. The performances that can be obtained by applying such a procedure are evaluated by a comparison with those obtainable via a general-purpose mathematical programming software package, as well as those obtained by applying very simple decision rules commonly used in practice. The considered case study consists in an area corresponding to the historical center of the Municipality of Genoa
Optimal Planning of Door-to-Door Multiple Materials Separated Waste Collection
No full textSeparated collection is an important part of waste management, because it allows material recovery. In order to organize separate collection operations, complex decisions need to be taken on the basis of a large amount of data. In this paper, the problem of planning the door-to-door waste collection of multiple materials for a municipality is considered. A few contributions are available in the literature for this problem. A new mixed integer linear programming model is formalized and solved. A multiobjective optimization model is proposed, aiming at minimizing both operational costs and possible inefficiencies of the recycling logistic system causing negative environmental impacts. The model is applied to a real case study and a mixed integer programming heuristic algorithm is used for its solution. The obtained results are discussed and conclusions are drawn
Distributed Model Predictive Control for Building Automation systems: a parallel ADMM approach
No full textThis paper proposes a distributed Model Predictive Control (MPC)-based approach for comfort temperature tracking and electric consumption minimization in building automation systems (BASs). The developed optimisation model and overall architecture were designed with real-world applications in mind, incorporating in-field controllers and sensors. A distributed optimization algorithm is here proposed, which extends the well-known alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) to handle inequality constraints (that are necessary to model the typical local temperature sensors and actuators in smart buildings). The
methodology is validated through testing on a real case study,
namely the Smart Energy Building (SEB) at the Savona Campus
of the University of Genoa, which is characterised by a geothermal heat pump, photovoltaics, storage systems, and charging stations. The algorithm enables reaching a comfortable temperature, limits power variation for the heat pump, and minimises costs. Regarding other solution methods, comparison with state-of-the-art approaches demonstrates a 25% reduction in the number of iterations needed for convergenc
A bi-level approach for the decentralized optimal control of dangerous goods fleets flowing through a tunnel
No full text
A general decision model for a sustainable groundwater planning
No full textWater is essential for human life and its protection and sustainable exploitation are crucial tasks. Specifically, it is necessary to identify the possible water bodies that could be exploited and, according to water demand needs, to define strategies that preserve the water resource from depletion and pollution and that are environmentally sustainable. The aim of this work is to present an architecture of a Decision Support System for groundwater supply and quality planning and management, able to integrate physical/chemical models (that take into account phenomena typical of agricultural, saltwater intrusion, and mountain aquifers) and decision models (both for long term planning and short term management problems)
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