Implications of Gas Infrastructure in Integrated Community Energy Systems

Integrated community energy systems have attracted considerable attention due to their capabilities in supporting distributed generation integration and providing various energy services to customers. However, the rising use of gas-fired generations at the community level is pushing the gas distribution network to its operational boundaries and preventing its further applications. This paper investigates the dynamic interactions and mutual dependence between community energy systems and the gas network through an integrated energy system model. The model incorporates the dynamic behaviors of the gas network, distributed generations and the relevant energy management system. Based on this model, disturbance propagations between the gas network and communities are analyzed from the viewpoint of energy exchanges. Numerical results demonstrate that the change of loads and solar panel outputs can cause large pressure drops of the gas network when microturbines are set to compensate for these variations, and the pressure drop can affect the operation of other gas-fired equipment in surrounding areas. The results also show that different communities can influence each other through the gas network, which indicates some coordination is required in order to restrain adverse interactions as well as their impacts on the gas network.