Total Cost Minimization of a High-Pressure Natural Gas Network

Abstract

This paper deals with a high-pressure gas pipeline optimization, where the problem is to find the design properties of the pipelines and necessary compressor stations to satisfy customer requirements, using available supply gas and storage capacities. The considered objective function is the total annualized cost, including the investment and operating costs. The binary variables used to represent the flow direction of pipelines lead to a mixed integer nonlinear programming problem, solved by using the standard branch and bound solver in GAMS. The optimization strategy provides the main design parameters of the pipelines (diameters, pressures, and flow rates) and the characteristics of compressor stations (location, suction pressure, pressure ratio, station throughput, fuel consumption, and station power consumption) to satisfy customer requirements.