Real-Time Flexibility Quantification of the Natural Gas Networks for the Electric Power System

Natural gas networks (NGNs) can offer flexibility to electric power systems (EPS) by utilizing the gas storage ability of pipelines. However, studies regarding the flexibility quantification from the NGN to the EPS at the real-time level are absent. This paper establishes a novel flexibility-providing mechanism for the NGN to cooperate with the EPS. The real-time flexibility quantification model of the NGN is formulated where the maximum value of the flexibility is obtained. At the same time, the dynamic state estimation (DSE) based on the finite difference method (FDM) for the NGN is applied, which can calculate the current distribution of the pressure and mass flow rate and provide data support for flexibility quantification. Numerical results verified that the proposed model successfully estimates the real-time flexibility inside the gas networks, considering the safe operation and benefits of the NGN.