Real-time economic dispatch for the supply side of the energy-water nexus

Clean energy and water are two essential resources that any society must securely deliver. Their usage raises sustainability issues and questions of nations’ resilience in face of global changes and mega-trends such as population growth, global climate change, and economic growth. Traditionally, the infrastructure systems that deliver these precious commodities, the water distribution and power transmission networks are thought of as separate, uncoupled systems. However, in reality, they are very much coupled in what is commonly known as the energy-water nexus. Although this subject has recently caught the attention of numerous policy and regulatory agencies, rarely is it holistically addressed in terms of an integrated engineering system for its management, planning, and regulation as an interdisciplinary concern. This work specifically fills this gap by addressing the supply side of this integrated engineering system. Specifically, it develops the multi-plant real-time simultaneous economic dispatch of power and water. While significant background literature has addressed traditional power dispatch, and the emerging co-dispatch of power and heat, as of now there does not exist a parameterized model for the optimized dispatch of power and water for multiple power, water, and coproduction facilities. The work presents such a model where production costs are minimized subject to capacity, demand and process constraints. It is demonstrated on an illustrative example of modest size. Interesting results were observed suggesting that the coproduction minimum capacity limits and process constraints can lead to scenarios where cheaper single product plants can be crowded out of the dispatch. The program provides a systematic method of achieving optimal results and can serve as a basis for set-points upon which individual plants can implement their optimal control. In so doing, it makes a supply-side contribution to the ongoing grand-challenge of improving the sustainability of the energy-water nexus.