IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v17y2024i22p5679-d1520267.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Addressing Uncertainty in Renewable Energy Integration for Western Australia’s Mining Sector: A Robust Optimization Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Mehrdad Ghahramani

    (School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia)

  • Daryoush Habibi

    (School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia)

  • Seyyedmorteza Ghamari

    (School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia)

  • Asma Aziz

    (School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia)

Abstract

The mining industry is a key contributor to Western Australia’s economy, with over 130 mining operations that produce critical minerals such as iron ore, gold, and lithium. Ensuring a reliable and continuous energy supply is vital for these operations. This paper addresses the challenges and opportunities of integrating renewable energy sources into isolated power systems, particularly under uncertainties associated with renewable energy generation and demand. A robust optimization approach is developed to model a multi-source hybrid energy system that considers risk-averse, risk-neutral, and risk-seeking strategies. These strategies address power demand and renewable energy supply uncertainties, ensuring system reliability under various risk scenarios. The optimization framework, formulated as a mixed integer linear programming problem and implemented in Python using the Gurobi Optimizer, integrates renewable energy sources such as wind turbines, photovoltaic arrays, and demand response programs alongside traditional diesel generators, boilers, combined heat and power units, and water desalination. The model ensures reliable access to electricity, heat, and water while minimizing operational costs and reducing reliance on fossil fuels. A comprehensive sensitivity analysis further examines the impact of uncertainty margins and the value of a lost load on the total system cost, providing insights into how different risk strategies affect system performance and cost-efficiency. The results are validated through three case studies demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed approach in enhancing the resilience and sustainability of isolated power systems in the mining sector. Significant improvements in reliability, scalability, and economic performance are observed, with the sensitivity analysis highlighting the critical trade-offs between cost and reliability under varying uncertainty conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Mehrdad Ghahramani & Daryoush Habibi & Seyyedmorteza Ghamari & Asma Aziz, 2024. "Addressing Uncertainty in Renewable Energy Integration for Western Australia’s Mining Sector: A Robust Optimization Approach," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-35, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:22:p:5679-:d:1520267
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/22/5679/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/22/5679/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zheng, Shanshan & Hai, Qing & Zhou, Xiao & Stanford, Russell J., 2024. "A novel multi-generation system for sustainable power, heating, cooling, freshwater, and methane production: Thermodynamic, economic, and environmental analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 290(C).
    2. Shi, Yunhong & Wang, Honglei & Li, Chengjiang & Negnevitsky, Michael & Wang, Xiaolin, 2024. "Stochastic optimization of system configurations and operation of hybrid cascade hydro-wind-photovoltaic with battery for uncertain medium- and long-term load growth," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 364(C).
    3. Pouresmaieli, Mahdi & Ataei, Mohammad & Nouri Qarahasanlou, Ali, 2023. "A scientometrics view on sustainable development in surface mining: Everything from the beginning," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    4. Felipe Arraño-Vargas & Zhiwei Shen & Shan Jiang & John Fletcher & Georgios Konstantinou, 2022. "Challenges and Mitigation Measures in Power Systems with High Share of Renewables—The Australian Experience," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-22, January.
    5. Mpho Sam Nkambule & Ali N. Hasan & Thokozani Shongwe, 2023. "Performance and Techno-Economic Analysis of Optimal Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems for the Mining Industry in South Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-40, December.
    6. Hamid Soleimani & Daryoush Habibi & Mehrdad Ghahramani & Asma Aziz, 2024. "Strengthening Power Systems for Net Zero: A Review of the Role of Synchronous Condensers and Emerging Challenges," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-23, July.
    7. Strazzabosco, A. & Gruenhagen, J.H. & Cox, S., 2022. "A review of renewable energy practices in the Australian mining industry," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 135-143.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yue, Tingyi & Wang, Honglei & Li, Chengjiang & Hu, Yu-jie, 2024. "Optimization strategies for green power and certificate trading in China considering seasonality: An evolutionary game-based system dynamics," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 311(C).
    2. Ingrid Hopley & Mehrdad Ghahramani & Asma Aziz, 2024. "Techno-Economic Factors Impacting the Intrinsic Value of Behind-the-Meter Distributed Storage," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-26, November.
    3. Liang Liang & Qian Mei & Chengjiang Li, 2024. "Does “Dual Credit Policy” Really Matter in Corporate Competitiveness?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-16, August.
    4. Matteo Baldelli & Lorenzo Bartolucci & Stefano Cordiner & Giorgio D’Andrea & Emanuele De Maina & Vincenzo Mulone, 2023. "Biomass to H2: Evaluation of the Impact of PV and TES Power Supply on the Performance of an Integrated Bio-Thermo-Chemical Upgrading Process for Wet Residual Biomass," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-17, March.
    5. Andrzej Pacana & Karolina Czerwińska, 2023. "A Quality Control Improvement Model That Takes into Account the Sustainability Concept and KPIs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-21, June.
    6. Arraño-Vargas, Felipe & Jiang, Shan & Bennett, Bruce & Konstantinou, Georgios, 2023. "Mitigation of power system oscillations in weak grids with battery energy storage systems: A real-world case study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    7. Mahmoud Khaled & Samer Ali & Hassan Jaber & Jalal Faraj & Rabih Murr & Thierry Lemenand, 2022. "Heating/Cooling Fresh Air Using Hot/Cold Exhaust Air of Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-11, March.
    8. Adrian Rapucha & Ramadas Narayanan & Meena Jha, 2024. "Heat Pumps with Smart Control in Managing Australian Residential Electrical Load during Transition to Net Zero Emissions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-18, June.
    9. Pan, Jing & Bai, Jinke & Zhang, Guanghua & Gao, Xiaomin, 2024. "Proposing an innovative polygeneration process based on biogas fuel: A comprehensive thermo-enviro-economic (4E) analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 304(C).
    10. Pan, Ting & Ocłoń, Paweł & He, Linhuan & Van Fan, Yee & Zhang, Shuhao & Wang, Bohong & Nowak-Ocłoń, Marzena & Tóth, Árpád & Varbanov, Petar Sabev, 2024. "Strategic integration of residential electricity: An optimisation model for solar energy utilisation and carbon reduction," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 310(C).
    11. Ogbo O.G & Amaechi M. & Okonkwo U.C., 2024. "Environmental and Social Impact of Sand Mining Activities Along the Odene-Aguleri River, Anambra State Nigeria," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(6), pages 193-207, June.
    12. Kheir Abadi, Majid & Ebrahimi-Moghadam, Amir, 2024. "An innovative sustainable multi-generation energy system (electricity, heat, cold, and potable water) based on green hydrogen-fueled engine and dryer," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 376(PB).
    13. Wang, Guimei & Moayedi, Hossein & Thi, Quynh T. & Mirzaei, Mojtaba, 2024. "Evaluation of heating load energy performance in residential buildings through five nature-inspired optimization algorithms," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 302(C).
    14. Chen, Yiru & He, Mu & Xu, Yi, 2023. "Sustainable development of the mining sector for achieving common prosperity in Chinese rural areas," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(PA).
    15. Liu, Jian & Hsu, Chou-Yi & Ahmad, Sayed Fayaz & Alotaibi, Majed A. & Allahham, Mahmoud Izzat & Qin, Muxing, 2025. "Design and energy, exergy, thermoeconomic, and exergo-environmental (4E) analyses of a novel hybrid geothermal/biogas-powered green multi-generation system using a post-combustion CO2 capture unit," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 377(PD).
    16. Gilmore, Nicholas & Koskinen, Ilpo & van Gennip, Domenique & Paget, Greta & Burr, Patrick A. & Obbard, Edward G. & Daiyan, Rahman & Sproul, Alistair & Kay, Merlinde & Lennon, Alison & Konstantinou, Ge, 2022. "Clean energy futures: An Australian based foresight study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    17. Pouresmaieli, Mahdi & Ataei, Mohammad & Nouri Qarahasanlou, Ali & Barabadi, Abbas, 2024. "Corporate social responsibility in complex systems based on sustainable development," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    18. Yue, Wenzhong & Zhang, Lijun & Li, Tongxin, 2024. "Sustainability in the metallic minerals industry: The imperative for carbon accounting - insights from firm-level analysis in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    19. Lu Xiao & Feiyue Yang & Yong Yang & Che Chen & Wuer Ha, 2024. "A Sustainable Production Planning Scheme for New Energy Vehicles in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-24, September.
    20. Li, Shuguang & Leng, Yuchi & Chaturvedi, Rishabh & Dutta, Ashit Kumar & Abdullaeva, Barno Sayfutdinovna & Fouad, Yasser, 2024. "Sustainable freshwater/energy supply through geothermal-centered layout tailored with humidification-dehumidification desalination unit; Optimized by regression machine learning techniques," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 303(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:22:p:5679-:d:1520267. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.