Simulation of a Simplified Electrical Grid

A simulation tool for modeling a simplified electrical grid with various types of power plants and consumers. The tool uses a linear programming solver to optimize costs for all connected entities.

Features

The simulation supports the following entities:

• Grid: Manages excess energy by producing or consuming as needed.
• Producer: Generates energy with defined capacity and efficiency constraints.
• Consumer: Requires energy to be supplied at specific timesteps.
• Storage: Stores surplus energy for later use, with configurable charging and discharging rules.

Entity Definitions

Grid

The grid is defined by the following parameters:

• name (string): Grid identifier
• cost_prod (array): Production costs per timestep
• power_prod (array): Production capacities per timestep
• cost_cons (array): Consumption costs per timestep
• power_cons (array): Consumption capacities per timestep
• entity_type (string): Must be "Grid"

Consumer

• name (string): Consumer identifier
• power_cons (array): Consumption demands per timestep
• eff_cons (array): Consumption efficiencies per timestep
• cost_cons (array): Consumption costs per timestep
• entity_type (string): Must be "Consumer"

Producer

• name (string): Producer identifier
• can_be_disabled (boolean): Indicates whether the producer can be disabled
• power_prod (array): Production capacities per timestep
• eff_prod (array): Production efficiencies per timestep
• cost_prod (array): Production costs per timestep
• entity_type (string): Must be "Producer"

Storage

• name (string): Storage identifier
• power_prod (array): Production capacities per timestep
• eff_prod (array): Production efficiencies per timestep
• cost_prod (array): Production costs per timestep
• power_cons (array): Consumption capacities per timestep
• eff_cons (array): Consumption efficiencies per timestep
• cost_cons (array): Consumption costs per timestep
• storage_capacity (float): Maximum energy storage capacity
• start_capacity (float): Initial stored energy
• end_capacity (float, optional): Final stored energy
• storage_to_grid_allowed (boolean): Whether storage can supply energy to the grid (default: false)
• grid_to_storage_allowed (boolean): Whether the grid can charge the storage (default: false)
• entity_type (string): Must be "Storage"

Parameter Handling

All numerical parameters must be provided as arrays. The value for a given timestep is determined using the following approach:

let index = timestep % array.len();
let value = array[index];
return value;

Defining Periodic Values

• Single-value array (length = 1): Applies a constant value across all timesteps.
• Hourly values (length = 24): Specifies a unique value for each hour of the day.
• Custom periodicities: Arrays of varying lengths can be used to define specific repeating patterns.

This flexibility allows for realistic modeling of energy consumption and production patterns.

Build Instructions

Compile the project using Cargo:

cargo build --release

Testing

Run the test suite with:

cargo test

Usage

To use the solver, create a JSON file containing all the entities. The file structure is as follows:

{
    "entities": [
        {
            "name": "Grid",
            "cost_prod": [1.0],
            "power_prod": [10.0],
            "cost_cons": [-1.0],
            "power_cons": [10.0],
            "entity_type": "Grid"
        },
        ...
    ],
    "timesteps": 24
}

Then, run the solver with:

./target/release/solver < path_to_json > path_to_output

Acknowledgements

This project depends on good_lp for formulating and solving linear programs.