Optimizing market bidding and energy management for electrified limestone calcined clay cement production

Cement production is highly energy-intensive and accounts for approximately 7% of global CO2 emissions. While low-carbon pathways—such as electrification and clinker substitution with Supplementary Cementitious Materials (SCMs)—hold promise, robust energy management is particularly critical for electrified systems. This paper presents a multistage stochastic optimization model to schedule and operate a partially electrified Limestone Calcined Clay Cement (LC3) plant. The model co-optimizes participation in electricity markets, including both energy (day-ahead and real-time) and reserve (ancillary services) markets, under uncertainty in market prices, CO2 intensity, grid frequency, and renewable production. It incorporates on-site renewable generation, battery storage, and a detailed representation of the plant’s distribution network with voltage constraints. Simulation results indicate that the provision of Frequency Containment Reserve (FCR) is a key driver of cost savings. Process schedules are optimized based on expected day-ahead and real-time price spreads, while battery storage offers additional flexibility for arbitrage and ancillary service provision. For the simulated seasons, daily indirect CO2 emissions range from 39.41 to 52.26 tons, while total CO2 savings reach around 45.06%, compared to a traditional plant, with a significant portion of this reduction driven by clinker substitution. Pareto front analysis highlights a trade-off: in the summer case, the highest-cost scenario can reduce its cost by 15.9% at the expense of 5% higher emissions, and the reverse applies depending on how the multi-objective function is weighted.