IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics

Seismic events can severely damage both electricity and natural gas systems, causing devastating consequences. Ensuring the secure and reliable operation of the integrated energy system (IES) is of high importance to avoid potential damage to the infrastructure and reduce economic losses. This article proposes a new optimal two-stage optimization to enhance the reliability of IES planning and operation against seismic attacks. In the first stage, hardening investment on the IES is conducted, featuring preventive measures for seismic attacks. The second stage minimizes the expected operation cost of emergency response. The random seismic attack is modeled as uncertainty, which is realized after the first stage. An explicit damage assessment model is developed to define the budget set of the uncertain seismic activity. Based on the survivability of transmission lines and gas pipelines of IES, an optimal system investment plan is developed. The problem is formulated as a two-stage distributionally robust optimization (DRO) model, which is tested on an integrated IEEE 30-bus system and 20-node gas network. Case studies demonstrate that the two-stage DRO outperforms robust optimization and a single-stage optimization model in terms of minimizing the investment cost and expected economic loss. This article can help system operators to make economical hardening and operation strategies to improve the reliability of IES under seismic attacks, thus managing a more robust and secure energy system.

The envisaged decarbonization of the European power system introduces complex techno-economic challenges to its operation and development. Demand flexibility can significantly contribute in addressing these challenges and enable a cost-effective transition to the low-carbon future. Although extensive previous work has analyzed the impacts of residential and commercial demand flexibility, the respective potential of the industrial sector has not yet been thoroughly investigated despite its large size. This paper presents a novel, whole-system modeling framework to comprehensively quantify the potential economic benefits of flexible industrial demand (FID) for the European power system. This framework considers generation, transmission, and distribution sectors of the system, and determines the least-cost long-term investment and short-term operation decisions. FID is represented through a generic, process-agnostic model, which, however, accounts for fixed energy requirements and load recovery effects associated with industrial processes. The numerical studies demonstrate multiple significant value streams of FID in Europe, including capital cost savings by avoiding investments in additional generation and transmission capacity and distribution reinforcements, as well as operating cost savings by enabling higher utilization of renewable generation sources and providing balancing services.

In-vitro fertilization (IVF) and related technologies are arguably the most challenging of all cell culture applications. This paper introduces a new design of an integrated oocyte retrieval solution before the oocytes are further put into laboratory processing during IVF treatment. It facilitates the surgery operation and addresses the temperature inaccuracy of follicular fluid during the transfer to the patient's body. The mechanical design is implemented into a medical-standard conforming platform. An accurate temperature estimation and optimization scheme is also proposed. Comparison before and after the introduction of the new prototype under various operating conditions reveals a significant improvement in performance. This yields a potential application for the medical/healthcare industry.