Recent changes in the fuel mix for electricity generation and, in particular, the increase in Gas-Fueled Power Plants (GFPP), have created significant interdependencies between the electrical power and natural gas transmission systems. However, despite their physical and economic couplings, these networks are still operated independently, with asynchronous market mechanisms. This mode of operation may lead to significant economic and reliability risks in congested environments as revealed by the 2014 polar vortex event experienced by the northeastern United States. To mitigate these risks, while preserving the current structure of the markets, this paper explores the idea of introducing gas network awareness into the standard unit commitment model. Under the assumption that the power system operator has some (or full) knowledge of gas demand forecast and the gas network, the paper proposes a tri-level mathematical program where natural gas zonal prices are given by the dual solutions of natural-gas flux conservation constraints and commitment decisions are subject to bid-validity constraints that ensure the economic viability of the committed GFPPs. This tri-level program can be reformulated as a single-level Mixed-Integer Second-Order Cone program which can then be solved using a dedicated Benders decomposition. The approach is validated on a case study for the Northeastern United States [1] that can reproduce the gas and electricity price spikes experienced during the early winter of 2014. The results on the case study demonstrate that gas awareness in unit commitment is instrumental in avoiding the peaks in electricity prices while keeping the gas prices to reasonable levels.

中文翻译：

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具有燃气网络意识的单位承诺

最近发电燃料组合的变化，特别是燃气发电厂 (GFPP) 的增加，在电力和天然气传输系统之间产生了显着的相互依存关系。然而，尽管它们的物理和经济耦合，这些网络仍然独立运行，具有异步市场机制。正如 2014 年美国东北部经历的极地涡旋事件所揭示的那样，这种运行模式可能会在拥挤的环境中导致重大的经济和可靠性风险。为了减轻这些风险，同时保留当前的市场结构，本文探讨了将天然气网络意识引入标准单位承诺模型的想法。在电力系统运营商对天然气需求预测和天然气管网有一定（或全部）知识的假设下，本文提出了一个三级数学程序，其中天然气分区价格由天然气通量守恒的对偶解给出。约束和承诺决策受投标有效性约束的约束，以确保承诺的 GFPP 的经济可行性。这个三级程序可以重新表述为一个单级混合整数二阶锥程序，然后可以使用专用的 Benders 分解来解决。该方法在美国东北部的案例研究中得到验证 [1]，该案例研究可以重现 2014 年初冬期间经历的天然气和电力价格飙升。