Economic scheduling of compressed natural gas main station considering critical peak pricing

Abstract Compressed natural gas has been proven to be more advantageous than gasoline and diesel in terms of emission cleanliness and equipment wear. The replacement of gasoline and diesel by CNG can be accelerated through the economic scheduling of CNG fueling stations. Due to the highly electrified equipment in the station, electricity cost is an important part of CNG operation costs. The critical peak pricing mechanism being implemented by the grid company provides opportunities for the economic scheduling of CNG fueling stations. This paper presents an improved operation model for a CNG main station, which considers the pre-system for the first time, including the dehydration device and buffer tank. Then, considering critical peak pricing, an economic scheduling model for the CNG main station is proposed. This optimal scheduling model is searched by an improved multi-population genetic algorithm combined with the elite retention strategy and repair operator. The results show that the electricity operating costs were effectively reduced by 34.62%, and the switching frequency of the compressor was decreased by 62.50%.