Open Access

ARTICLE

Low-Carbon Operational Optimization of Integrated Electricity-Heat-Gas Systems Considering Regulation Capability

Yan Lu^1,*, Jian Zhang², Bo Lu³, Zhongfu Tan⁴

1 State Grid Jibei Electric Power Co., Ltd. Economic and Technical Research Institute, Beijing, China
2 State Grid Jibei Electric Power Co., Ltd., Beijing, China
3 Beijing Bowang Huake Technology Co., Ltd., Beijing, China
4 School of Economics and Management, North China Electric Power University, Beijing, China

* Corresponding Author: Yan Lu. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Advanced Analytics on Energy Systems)

Energy Engineering 2026, 123(11), 22 https://doi.org/10.32604/ee.2026.067612

Received 07 May 2025; Accepted 20 June 2025; Issue published 24 September 2026

Abstract

To promote the consumption of new energy sources such as wind and solar power and to achieve multi-energy and multi-system coupling, this paper proposes a low-carbon operation optimization strategy for the Electric-Heat-Gas Coupling System (EHGCS) that incorporates regulation capabilities. First, the operational framework of the EHGCS was designed, and an equipment output model was developed, taking into account the dynamic efficiency of electrolytic cells and the delayed response characteristics of hydrogen fuel cells. Next, a regulation capability model and a dynamic regulation price model were proposed for the coupling of subsystems involving electrical, thermal, and gas energy across multiple systems. Subsequently, the correlation between energy market prices and carbon market prices was analyzed using the kernel density copula method, which informed the development of a low-carbon operation optimization model for the EHGCS. This model aims to maximize both net income and clean energy consumption. A numerical analysis was then conducted through a case study of a specific park. The results demonstrated that ignoring the dynamic efficiency of electrolytic cells increases the operating cost of the EHGCS by 5.9% while neglecting the delayed response characteristics of hydrogen fuel cells raises the system’s uncertainty cost by 3.7%. Additionally, considering the flexible adjustment capability of the electric-thermal-gas multi-system reduces user energy costs by 2169.75 CNY and boosts clean energy consumption by 8.22%. Incorporating dynamic price adjustments further enhances the system’s dynamic regulation capacity. Finally, the application of the kernel density copula method accurately captures the correlation between energy and carbon markets, resulting in a 23.17% increase in EHGCS net income.

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Keywords

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