Optimization of Emergency Gas Supply Schemes in Natural Gas Pipeline Networks Under Extreme Conditions Considering Customer Characteristics

Abstract During peak periods of natural gas consumption, extreme conditions can lead to a shortage in gas supply, reducing operator profits and customer satisfaction. This study proposes evaluation indexes for emergency supply schemes from the perspectives of profit and customer satisfaction. The study analyzes the characteristics of different customers and introduces reduction coefficients to constraint demand. Considering the hydraulic operation constraints of each pipeline, equipment, and nodes in the pipeline network, as well as the tiered pricing constraints of each customer, a multi-objective emergency supply scheme optimization model under extreme conditions is established. The spatial branch and bound algorithm in the Gurobi solver is employed to solve the established Mixed Integer Quadratic Programming (MIQP) model. The min-max method makes a trade-off among the Pareto solution sets to obtain the optimal supply scheme. Taking a large-scale loop-topology pipeline network in a province of China as a case study, the conflicting relationship between profits and customer satisfaction is analyzed under extreme conditions of source supply shortage and customer demand surge. The results indicate that the proposed method can effectively balance profits and customer satisfaction. The solution time under different conditions does not exceed 1 second. Compared with the SPS simulation software, the relative error of the node pressure does not exceed 3%, demonstrating high solution efficiency and feasibility. The method developed in this study can provide decision support for network operators to formulate gas supply schemes reasonably under extreme conditions, offering strong guiding significance.