Abstract
A structural optimization method is proposed for designing energy supply systems in consideration of the discreteness of equipment capacities. The structural optimization problem is formulated as a large-scale mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) problem with binary variables for selection and on/off status of equipment, and continuous variables for energy flow rates of equipment. This problem is solved by extending a decomposition method for the problem with continuous equipment capacities. Through a numerical case study, it turns out that the proposed method generates a suboptimal solution for a suitable structural design with a reasonable computation time.
