Multi-Energy Coordination Strategy for Islanded MEMG with Carbon-Gas Coupling and Demand Side Responses

Multi-energy microgrids are emerging technologies to facilitate the integration of distributed energy resources and decarbonisation of various energy consumptions. To assist in the low-carbon and efficient operation of multi-energy microgrids, this paper proposes a multi-energy coordination method for an electricity-heat-gas microgrid which integrates technologies of carbon-gas coupling (CGC) and demand side response (DSR). The carbon capture system–power-to-gas unit and water electrolyser (WE) are jointly employed to capture carbon emissions from combined heat-and-power units for methane synthesis, enabling the CGC and reducing carbon emissions and reliance on external gas supply. Then, incentive-based DSR schemes are implemented for both electricity and heat loads, leveraging the demand-side flexibility to further enhance the use of renewable generation. The operation of CGC and DSR units is co-optimised to minimise the penalties related to renewable generation curtailments and carbon emissions subject to a set of constraints including demand-side comfort coefficients. Compared to a traditional microgrid with neither CGC nor DSR, the joint implementation of CGC and DSR is estimated to reduce the total operational cost and carbon emissions of microgrid by over 20% and 40%, respectively, and increase the use of renewable generation by about 19%, illustrating the effectiveness of the proposed coordination method together with CGC and DSR technologies in reducing microgrid operating costs and carbon emissions while improving the share of renewables.