MPNG: A MATPOWER-Based Tool for Optimal Power and Natural Gas Flow Analyses

Abstract

MPNG is an open-source simulation package for solving Optimal Power and Natural Gas Flow (OPNGF) problems. It is coded in Matlab and developed using the widely-used tool for power systems research and education, Matpower. MPNG assembles a nonlinear steady state OPNGF formulation for analyzing the integration of electricity and natural gas networks with order-of-priority classes of consumers and gas nodal price-controlled storage facilities. This paper presents the details of the nonlinear optimization model behind MPNG, as well as several features that were designed into it for the purpose of achieving robustness. These include an approximation of the Weymouth equation for handling bi-directional gas flows in pipelines, a per-unit representation for the natural gas network, and penalized slack variables for power and gas balances. Simulation results using a test case and the Colombian power and natural gas networks are presented to highlight MPNG's capabilities to solve OPNGF problems.