Thermal Power Plant (with and without CCS)

Graph structure

A thermal power plant (with and without CCS) is represented in Macro using the following graph structure:

A thermal power plant (with and without CCS) is made of:

1 Transformation component, representing the thermal power plant (with and without CCS).
4 Edge components:
- 1 incoming Fuel Edge, representing the fuel supply.
- 1 outgoing Electricity Edge, representing the electricity production. This edge can have unit commitment operations.
- 1 outgoing CO2 Edge, representing the CO2 that is emitted.
- 1 outgoing CO2Captured Edge, representing the CO2 that is captured (only if CCS is present).

Attributes

The structure of the input file for a ThermalPower asset follows the graph representation. Each global_data and instance_data will look like this:

{
    "transforms":{
        // ... transformation-specific attributes ...
    },
    "edges":{
        "fuel_edge": {
            // ... fuel_edge-specific attributes ...
        },
        "elec_edge": {
            // ... elec_edge-specific attributes ...
        },
        "co2_edge": {
            // ... co2_edge-specific attributes ...
        },
        "co2_captured_edge": {
            // ... co2_captured_edge-specific attributes, only if CCS is present ...
        }
    }
}

Transformation

The definition of the transformation object can be found here MacroEnergy.Transformation.

Attribute	Type	Values	Default	Description/Units
timedata	`String`	`String`	Required	Time resolution for the time series data linked to the transformation. E.g. "NaturalGas".
constraints	`Dict{String,Bool}`	Any Macro constraint type for vertices	`BalanceConstraint`	List of constraints applied to the transformation. E.g. `{"BalanceConstraint": true}`.
fuel_consumption $\epsilon_{fuel\_consumption}$	`Float64`	`Float64`	1.0	$MWh_{fuel}/MWh_{elec}$
emission_rate $\epsilon_{emission\_rate}$	`Float64`	`Float64`	0.0	$t_{CO2}/MWh_{fuel}$
capture_rate $\epsilon_{co2\_capture\_rate}$	`Float64`	`Float64`	0.0	$t_{CO2}/MWh_{fuel}$

Default constraints

The default constraint for the transformation part of the thermal power asset is the following:

Balance constraint

Flow equations

In the following equations, $\phi$ is the flow of the commodity and $\epsilon$ is the stoichiometric coefficient defined in the transformation table below.

ThermalPower

Note: Fuel is the type of the fuel being converted.

\[\begin{aligned} \phi_{fuel} &= \phi_{elec} \cdot \epsilon_{fuel\_consumption} \\ \phi_{co2} &= \phi_{fuel} \cdot \epsilon_{emission\_rate} \\ \phi_{co2\_captured} &= \phi_{fuel} \cdot \epsilon_{co2\_capture\_rate} \quad \text{(if CCS)} \\ \end{aligned}\]

Edges

Asset expansion

As a modeling decision, only the Electricity and Fuel edges are allowed to expand. Therefore, both the has_capacity and constraints attributes can only be set for those edges. For all the other edges, these attributes are pre-set to false and to an empty list respectively to ensure the correct modeling of the asset.

Directionality

The unidirectional attribute is set to true for all the edges.

Unit commitment and default constraints

The Electricity edge can have unit commitment operations. To enable it, the user needs to set the uc attribute to true. The default constraints for unit commitment case are the following:

In case of no unit commitment, the uc attribute is set to false and the default constraints are the following:

Capacity constraint

All the edges are represented by the same set of attributes. The definition of the Edge object can be found here MacroEnergy.Edge.

Attribute	Type	Values	Default	Description
type	`String`	Any Macro commodity type matching the commodity of the edge	Required	Commodity of the edge. E.g. "Electricity".
start_vertex	`String`	Any node id present in the system matching the commodity of the edge	Required	ID of the starting vertex of the edge. The node must be present in the `nodes.json` file. E.g. "elec_node_1".
end_vertex	`String`	Any node id present in the system matching the commodity of the edge	Required	ID of the ending vertex of the edge. The node must be present in the `nodes.json` file. E.g. "elec_node_2".
constraints	`Dict{String,Bool}`	Any Macro constraint type for Edges	See note above	List of constraints applied to the edge. E.g. `{"CapacityConstraint": true}`.
availability	`Dict`	Availability file path and header	Empty	Path to the availability file and column name for the availability time series to link to the edge. E.g. `{"timeseries": {"path": "assets/availability.csv", "header": "MIDAT_natural_gas_fired_combined_cycle_1"}}`.
can_expand	`Bool`	`Bool`	`false`	Whether the edge is eligible for capacity expansion.
can_retire	`Bool`	`Bool`	`false`	Whether the edge is eligible for capacity retirement.
capacity_size	`Float64`	`Float64`	`1.0`	Size of the edge capacity.
existing_capacity	`Float64`	`Float64`	`0.0`	Existing capacity of the edge in MW.
fixed_om_cost	`Float64`	`Float64`	`0.0`	Fixed operations and maintenance cost (USD/MW-year).
has_capacity	`Bool`	`Bool`	`false`	Whether capacity variables are created for the edge (only available for the `Hydrogen` and `Fuel` edges).
integer_decisions	`Bool`	`Bool`	`false`	Whether capacity variables are integers.
investment_cost	`Float64`	`Float64`	`0.0`	Annualized capacity investment cost (USD/MW-year)
loss_fraction	`Float64`	Number $\in$ [0,1]	`0.0`	Fraction of transmission loss.
max_capacity	`Float64`	`Float64`	`Inf`	Maximum allowed capacity of the edge (MW). Note: add the `MaxCapacityConstraint` to the constraints dictionary to activate this constraint.
min_capacity	`Float64`	`Float64`	`0.0`	Minimum allowed capacity of the edge (MW). Note: add the `MinCapacityConstraint` to the constraints dictionary to activate this constraint.
min_flow_fraction	`Float64`	Number $\in$ [0,1]	`0.0`	Minimum flow of the edge as a fraction of the total capacity. Note: add the `MinFlowConstraint` to the constraints dictionary to activate this constraint.
min_down_time	`Int64`	`Int64`	`0`	Minimum amount of time the edge has to remain in the shutdown state before starting up again. Note: add the `MinDownTimeConstraint` to the constraints dictionary to activate this constraint.
min_up_time	`Int64`	`Int64`	`0`	Minimum amount of time the edge has to remain in the committed state. Note: add the `MinUpTimeConstraint` to the constraints dictionary to activate this constraint.
ramp_down_fraction	`Float64`	Number $\in$ [0,1]	`1.0`	Maximum decrease in flow between two time steps, reported as a fraction of the capacity. Note: add the `RampingLimitConstraint` to the constraints dictionary to activate this constraint.
ramp_up_fraction	`Float64`	Number $\in$ [0,1]	`1.0`	Maximum increase in flow between two time steps, reported as a fraction of the capacity. Note: add the `RampingLimitConstraint` to the constraints dictionary to activate this constraint.
startup_cost	`Float64`	`Float64`	`0.0`	Cost per MW of capacity to start a generator (USD/MW per start).
startup_fuel	`Float64`	`Float64`	`0.0`	Startup fuel use per MW of capacity (MWh/MW per start).
uc	`Bool`	`Bool`	`false`	Whether the edge has unit commitment operations.
variable_om_cost	`Float64`	`Float64`	`0.0`	Variable operation and maintenance cost (USD/MWh).

Example

The following is an example of the input file for a ThermalPowerCCS asset that creates three ThermalPowerCCS assets, one in each of the SE, MIDAT and NE regions.

{
    "NaturalGasPowerCCS": [
        {
            "type": "ThermalPowerCCS",
            "global_data": {
                "transforms": {
                    "timedata": "NaturalGas",
                    "constraints": {
                        "BalanceConstraint": true
                    }
                },
                "edges": {
                    "elec_edge": {
                        "type": "Electricity",
                        "uc": true,
                        "unidirectional": true,
                        "has_capacity": true,
                        "can_expand": true,
                        "can_retire": true,
                        "integer_decisions": false,
                        "constraints": {
                            "CapacityConstraint": true,
                            "RampingLimitConstraint": true,
                            "MinFlowConstraint": true,
                            "MinUpTimeConstraint": true,
                            "MinDownTimeConstraint": true
                        }
                    },
                    "fuel_edge": {
                        "type": "NaturalGas",
                        "unidirectional": true,
                        "has_capacity": false
                    },
                    "co2_edge": {
                        "type": "CO2",
                        "unidirectional": true,
                        "has_capacity": false,
                        "end_vertex": "co2_sink"
                    },
                    "co2_captured_edge": {
                        "type": "CO2Captured",
                        "unidirectional": true,
                        "has_capacity": false,
                        "end_vertex": "co2_captured_sink"
                    }
                },
            },
            "instance_data": [
                {
                    "id": "SE_naturalgas_ccccsavgcf_conservative_0",
                    "transforms": {
                        "fuel_consumption": 2.09809579,
                        "emission_rate": 0.018104824,
                        "capture_rate": 0.162943412
                    },
                    "edges": {
                        "elec_edge": {
                            "end_vertex": "elec_SE",
                            "investment_cost": 150408.6558,
                            "existing_capacity": 0.0,
                            "fixed_om_cost": 65100,
                            "variable_om_cost": 5.73,
                            "capacity_size": 377,
                            "startup_cost": 97,
                            "startup_fuel": 0.058614214,
                            "min_up_time": 4,
                            "min_down_time": 4,
                            "ramp_up_fraction": 1,
                            "ramp_down_fraction": 1,
                            "min_flow_fraction": 0.5
                        },
                        "fuel_edge": {
                            "start_vertex": "natgas_SE"
                        }
                    }
                },
                {
                    "id": "MIDAT_naturalgas_ccccsavgcf_conservative_0",
                    "transforms": {
                        "fuel_consumption": 2.09809579,
                        "emission_rate": 0.018104824,
                        "capture_rate": 0.162943412
                    },
                    "edges": {
                        "elec_edge": {
                            "end_vertex": "elec_MIDAT",
                            "investment_cost": 158946.1077,
                            "existing_capacity": 0.0,
                            "fixed_om_cost": 65100,
                            "variable_om_cost": 5.73,
                            "capacity_size": 377,
                            "startup_cost": 97,
                            "startup_fuel": 0.058614214,
                            "min_up_time": 4,
                            "min_down_time": 4,
                            "ramp_up_fraction": 1,
                            "ramp_down_fraction": 1,
                            "min_flow_fraction": 0.5
                        },
                        "fuel_edge": {
                            "start_vertex": "natgas_MIDAT"
                        }
                    }
                },
                {
                    "id": "NE_naturalgas_ccccsavgcf_conservative_0",
                    "transforms": {
                        "fuel_consumption": 2.09809579,
                        "emission_rate": 0.018104824,
                        "capture_rate": 0.162943412
                    },
                    "edges": {
                        "elec_edge": {
                            "end_vertex": "elec_NE",
                            "investment_cost": 173266.9946,
                            "existing_capacity": 0.0,
                            "fixed_om_cost": 65100,
                            "variable_om_cost": 5.73,
                            "capacity_size": 377,
                            "startup_cost": 97,
                            "startup_fuel": 0.058614214,
                            "min_up_time": 4,
                            "min_down_time": 4,
                            "ramp_up_fraction": 1,
                            "ramp_down_fraction": 1,
                            "min_flow_fraction": 0.5
                        },
                        "fuel_edge": {
                            "start_vertex": "natgas_NE"
                        }
                    }
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}