Long-term planning of natural gas networks

Due to the forthcoming regulation schemes throughout Europe, new challenges for natural gas network operators arise. The pressure for realising and operating cost-efficient network structures increases as the regulation is based on comparison between network operators and the tolerable costs are set by the network operator with minimal costs. Computer-based optimisation methods, which will also be applied by Regulatory Authorities as part of the analytical cost models for calculating the efficiency of electricity and natural gas networks, provide the opportunity to identify long-term cost-efficient network structures, so called reference networks. Boundary conditions of natural gas networks, which concern the systempsilas technical safety and thus need to be regarded during network planning, are given by the rules set of each countrypsilas technical association for natural gas supply. Degrees of freedom for the optimisation are given by the choice of different network structures, the number and operating pressure of pressure stages and for the dimensioning of equipment. Therefore, computer-based optimisation methods are required for solving the extensive optimisation problem. An optimisation method for natural gas distribution networks based on Genetic Algorithms is proposed. The method is capable of calculating cost-efficient network structures with regard to all technical and economical boundary conditions and is also used by the German Federal Network Agency for calculating reference networks with minimum costs for given supply tasks. Exemplary results demonstrate the methodpsilas capability and the advantages given by the application of this method on long-term planning of natural gas networks.