Production optimization

Energy Optima 3 is one of the world leading systems for online optimized production plans for energy producers. The system operates with different time horizons, both short and long term.

The Energy Optima 3 module for Production Optimization enables a detailed and exact projection of the customer’s production units, by using a user friendly graphical editor, the so called Topology Editor. By combining the model with fuel and trading contracts, load and price forecasts and inserting technical and economical input data directly into the graphical editor, exact production plans can be calculated in a minimum of time. Energy Optima 3 Production optimization module offers:

• Short and long term computer optimized production plans

• Automatic scenario calculations using a Work-Flow-Engine

• Simultaneous optimization of production plans and contracts

• Confirmation of production plans and trading volumes

• Visualization and follow-up solutions for the production planner, trader, management and control room

Follow-up of the production economy

Exact optimizations and forecasts are crucial to maximize efficiency and profit. Analyzing the past shows how far the reality is apart from the theoretical maximum. Energy Optima 3’s follow-up delivers individual solutions to analyze costs, forecasts and the production of each single unit in the past to find unused optimization and improvement potential.                            

This tool also offers automatic long-term follow-up that can be used for yearly economical goals.

Another important aspect is that it focuses the production staff’s attention on the production economy, and is a very powerful tool in achieving the profits from using the module for production optimization.

All types of facilities

Energy Opticon’s many years of branch experience enables modeling of all types of production facilities and all kinds of combinations of these. This is made possible through a topology editor program that allows customers to model and change in its power plant fleet. The customer can also change load forecasts, various contracts for fuel and more.

All types of special conditions and constraints can be handled either in the software itself or with special programming.

Saves milion per year

Independent studies have shown that with computer-optimized production plans, it is possible to lower variable production costs by 2-10 % per year. With the current conditions in the electricity markets, and with the possibilities to also optimize the district heating network, the savings could be even higher (higher revenue). Moreover, it is today a mere necessity of this type of computer tools in order to act successfully on the electricity market, since the changes happen too quickly in order to be able to figure out the production plans manually or base the plans on simple rules of thumb.

Optimization calculations

The optimization horizon (how far ahead the optimization extends) is flexible and can be freely adjusted by the user. Optimizations can be started, for example, once per hour, but this can also be chosen by the user. A work flow engine can automate different optimization scenario calculations with, for example, different electricity prices and heat consumptions. 

All optimization results are saved in a database and can be transferred for further analysis.

Short-term and long-term optimization

The standard module for optimal production plans calculates with time horizons from 1 hour up to a month ahead of time (short-term optimization). With long-term optimization, optimization for up to a year is made possible. With year time horizon, calculations for fuel and audit planning, CO₂ quotas, investment in new or modified units in the energy system, taxes that are based on long-term quotas etc. are made possible.

Hydropower optimization

Hydropower optimizations in Energy Optima 3 calculate the economically optimal operation of any type of hydropower stations. It includes run-river stations, pump storages and dams. Different time delays between different power stations in a river system are calculated and optimized as well as the water levels in the dams. It can also optimize the power balance from hydro power together with for example the power from thermal power plants. Provided that the electricity trading module is connected to the system, different types of electricity market products are taken into account in the calculations.

Regional cooperation

As the energy industry is constantly faced with increased challenges, energy companies need to find new ways to increase revenue and reduce costs.

A growing trend in energy companies with cogeneration is to initiate regional cooperation between different cities and owners. The local district heating networks are interconnected, thus increasing the flexibility of district heating systems and revenue for the sales of produced electricity and district heating, while providing the opportunity to handle the increase in complicated operating instances in production.

Especially when there is a system of waste incineration, this is a good solution, as waste incineration can sometimes even cause negative heat prices on the production side, which means that the cheap waste heat can reach more heat consumers.

In order to optimize the operation of several local district heating networks with different owners as a large network (which is complicated and includes many parameters), it requires a tool in the form of optimization tools. The companies need help to figure out which units to run, when and at what load. They also need to know the amount of heat to be transferred, as well as when and which of the companies should produce it.

To calculate which company should get what, there are different models.

One possible model is the trading model (calculations ahead of time). The trading model allows close cooperation between several parties that do not require a high level of trust between the parties. An example of this model is the cooperation in Copenhagen. In this cooperation, the first district heating forecast is made for the next 24 hours. After that, the existing producers offer optimized price steps with district heating and corresponding district heating. Price and offer are then accepted, or not.

In the recent years, "deeper" co-operation has occurred in the regions, the trust model (calculations forwards and backwards). This type of collaboration enables even greater potential savings, profits, flexibility, energy security and other forms of cooperation. This also requires a high level of communication and transparency and a high focus on the production economy.