A Hierarchical Optimisation of a Compressed Natural Gas Station for Energy and Fuelling Efficiency under a Demand Response Program

Compressed natural gas stations serve customers who have chosen compressed natural gas powered vehicles as an alternative to diesel and petrol based ones, for cost or environmental reasons. The interaction between the compressed natural gas station and electricity grid requires an energy management strategy to minimise a significant component of the operating costs of the station where demand response programs exist. Such a strategy when enhanced through integration with a control strategy for optimising gas delivery can raise the appeal of the compressed natural gas, which is associated with reduced criteria air pollutants. A hierarchical operation optimisation approach adopted in this study seeks to achieve energy cost reduction for a compressed natural gas station in a time-of-use electricity tariff environment as well as increase the vehicle fuelling efficiency. This is achieved by optimally controlling the gas dispenser and priority panel valve function under an optimised schedule of compressor operation. The results show that electricity cost savings of up to 60.08% are achieved in the upper layer optimisation while meeting vehicle gas demand over the control horizon. Further, a reduction in filling times by an average of 16.92 s is achieved through a lower layer model predictive control of the pressure-ratio-dependent fuelling process.