TY - GEN A1 - Riedmüller, Stephanie A1 - Buchholz, Annika A1 - Zittel, Janina T1 - Enhancing Multi-Energy Modeling: The Role of Mixed-Integer Optimization Decisions N2 - The goal to decarbonize the energy sector has led to increased research in modeling and optimizing multi-energy systems. One of the most promising and popular techniques for modeling and solving (multi-)energy optimization problems is (multi-objective) mixed-integer programming, valued for its ability to represent the complexities of integrated energy systems. While the literature often focuses on deriving mathematical formulations and parameter settings, less attention is given to critical post-formulation decisions. Modeling multi-energy systems as mixed-integer linear optimization programs demands decisions across multiple degrees of freedom. Key steps include reducing a real-world multi energy network into an abstract topology, defining variables, formulating the relevant (in-)equalities to represent technical requirements, setting (multiple) objectives, and integrating these elements into a mixed-integer program (MIP). However, with these elements fixed, the specific transformation of the abstract topology into a graph structure and the construction of the MIP remain non-uniquely. These choices can significantly impact user-friendliness, problem size, and computational efficiency, thus affecting the feasibility and efficiency of modeling efforts. In this work, we identify and analyze the additional degrees of freedom and describe two distinct approaches to address them. The approaches are compared regarding mathematical equivalence, suitability for solution algorithms, and clarity of the underlying topology. A case study on a realistic subarea of Berlin’s district heating network involving tri-objective optimization for a unit commitment problem demonstrates the practical significance of these decisions. By highlighting these critical yet often overlooked aspects, our work equips energy system modelers with insights to improve computational efficiency, scalability, and interpretability in their optimization efforts, ultimately enhancing the practicality and effectiveness of multi-energy system models. T3 - ZIB-Report - 25-08 Y1 - 2025 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-100329 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Mehl, Lukas A1 - Lindner, Niels A1 - Bartoszuk, Karolina A1 - Zittel, Janina T1 - Prototypical warm-starts for demand-robust LP-based energy system optimization N2 - The expressiveness of energy system optimization models (ESOMs) depends on a multitude of exogenous parameters. For example, sound estimates of the future energy demand are essential to enable qualified decisions on long-term investments. However, the enormous demand fluctuations even on a fine-grained scale diminish the computational performance of large-scale ESOMs. We therefore propose a clustering-and-decomposition method for linear programming based ESOMs that first identifies and solves prototypical demand scenarios with the dual simplex algorithm, and then composes dual optimal prototype bases to a warm-start basis for the full model. We evaluate the feasibility and computational efficiency our approach on a real-world case study, using a sector-coupled ESOM with hourly resolution for the Berlin-Brandenburg area in Germany, based on the oemof framework. T3 - ZIB-Report - 25-15 Y1 - 2025 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-101242 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Riedmüller, Stephanie A1 - Zittel, Janina A1 - Koch, Thorsten T1 - Warm-starting Strategies in Scalarization Methods for Multi-Objective Optimization N2 - We explore how warm-starting strategies can be integrated into scalarization-based approaches for multi-objective optimization in (mixed) integer linear programming. Scalarization methods remain widely used classical techniques to compute Pareto-optimal solutions in applied settings. They are favored due to their algorithmic simplicity and broad applicability across continuous and integer programs with an arbitrary number of objectives. While warm-starting has been applied in this context before, a systematic methodology and analysis remain lacking. We address this gap by providing a theoretical characterization of warm-starting within scalarization methods, focusing on the sequencing of subproblems. However, optimizing the order of subproblems to maximize warm-start efficiency may conflict with alternative criteria, such as early identification of infeasible regions. We quantify these trade-offs through an extensive computational study. T3 - ZIB-Report - 25-12 Y1 - 2025 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-101073 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Riedmüller, Stephanie A1 - Rivetta, Fabian A1 - Zittel, Janina T1 - Long-Term Multi-Objective Optimization for Integrated Unit Commitment and Investment Planning for District Heating Networks N2 - The need to decarbonize the energy system has intensified the focus on district heating networks in urban and suburban areas. Therefore, exploring transformation pathways with reasonable trade-offs between economic viability and environmental goals became necessary. We introduce a network-flow-based model class integrating unit commitment and long-term investment planning for multi-energy systems. While the integration of unit commitment and investment planning has been applied to multi-energy systems, a formal introduction and suitability for the application of long-term portfolio planning of an energy provider on an urban scale has yet to be met. Based on mixed integer linear programming, the model bridges the gap between overly detailed industrial modeling tools not designed for computational efficiency at scale and rather abstract academic models. The formulation is tested on Berlin's district heating network. Hence, the challenge lies in a large number of variables and constraints and the coupling of time steps, for example, through investment decisions. A case study explores different solutions on the Pareto front defined by optimal trade-offs between minimizing costs and emissions through a lexicographic optimization approach. The resulting solution catalog can provide decision-makers valuable insights into feasible transformation pathways, highlighting distinctions between robust and target-dependent investments. T3 - ZIB-Report - 24-09 KW - multi-objective optimization KW - multi-energy systems KW - investment planning KW - unit commitment Y1 - 2024 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-97804 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Lindner, Niels A1 - Bartoszuk, Karolina A1 - Debgupta, Srinwanti A1 - Gering, Marie-Claire A1 - Muschner, Christoph A1 - Zittel, Janina T1 - Warm-starting modeling to generate alternatives for energy transition paths in the Berlin-Brandenburg area N2 - Energy system optimization models are key to investigate energy transition paths towards a decarbonized future. Since this approach comes with intrinsic uncertainties, it is insufficient to compute a single optimal solution assuming perfect foresight to provide a profound basis for decision makers. The paradigm of modeling to generate alternatives enables to explore the near-optimal solution space to a certain extent. However, large-scale energy models require a non-negligible computation time to be solved. We propose to use warm start methods to accelerate the process of finding close-to-optimal alternatives. In an extensive case study for the energy transition of the Berlin-Brandenburg area, we make use of the sector-coupled linear programming oemof-B3 model to analyze a scenario for the year 2050 with a resolution of one hour and 100% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. We demonstrate that we can actually achieve a significant computational speedup. T3 - ZIB-Report - 24-08 KW - Energy System Optimization KW - Energy Transition KW - Modeling to Generate Alternatives Y1 - 2024 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-97835 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Yueksel-Erguen, Inci A1 - Koch, Thorsten A1 - Zittel, Janina T1 - Mathematical optimization based flow scenario generation for operational analysis of European gas transport networks based on open data N2 - The decarbonization of the European energy system demands a rapid and comprehensive transformation while securing energy supplies at all times. Still, natural gas plays a crucial role in this process. Recent unexpected events forced drastic changes in gas routes throughout Europe. Therefore, operational-level analysis of the gas transport networks and technical capacities to cope with these transitions using unconventional scenarios has become essential. Unfortunately, data limitations often hinder such analyses. To overcome this challenge, we propose a mathematical model-based scenario generator that enables operational analysis of the European gas network using open data. Our approach focuses on the consistent analysis of specific partitions of the gas transport network, whose network topology data is readily available. We generate reproducible and consistent node-based gas in/out-flow scenarios for these defined network partitions to enable feasibility analysis and data quality assessment. Our proposed method is demonstrated through several applications that address the feasibility analysis and data quality assessment of the German gas transport network. By using open data and a mathematical modeling approach, our method allows for a more comprehensive understanding of the gas transport network's behavior and assists in decision-making during the transition to decarbonization. T3 - ZIB-Report - 24-03 Y1 - 2024 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-95789 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Petkovic, Milena A1 - Zakiyeva, Nazgul A1 - Zittel, Janina T1 - Statistical analysis and modeling for detecting regime changes in gas nomination time series N2 - As a result of the legislation for gas markets introduced by the European Union in 2005, separate independent companies have to conduct the transport and trading of natural gas. The current gas market of Germany, which has a market value of more than 54 billion USD, consists of Transmission System Operators (TSO), network users, and traders. Traders can nominate a certain amount of gas anytime and anywhere in the network. Such unrestricted access for the traders, on the other hand, increase the uncertainty in the gas supply management. Some customers’ behaviors may cause abrupt structural changes in gas flow time series. In particular, it is a challenging task for the TSO operators to predict gas nominations 6 to 10 hours ahead. In our study, we aim to investigate the regime changes in the time series of nominations to predict the 6 to 10 hours ahead of gas nominations. T3 - ZIB-Report - 21-22 KW - Time series Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-82988 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Pedersen, Jaap A1 - Hoppmann-Baum, Kai A1 - Zittel, Janina A1 - Koch, Thorsten T1 - Blending hydrogen into natural gas: An assessment of the capacity of the German gas grid; Technical Report N2 - In the transition towards a pure hydrogen infrastructure, utilizing the existing natural gas infrastructure is a necessity. In this study, the maximal technically feasible injection of hydrogen into the existing German natural gas transmission network is analysed with respect to regulatory limits regarding the gas quality. We propose a transient tracking model based on the general pooling problem including linepack. The analysis is conducted using real-world hourly gas flow data on a network of about 10,000 km length. T3 - ZIB-Report - 21-21 Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-82838 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Petkovic, Milena A1 - Chen, Ying A1 - Gamrath, Inken A1 - Gotzes, Uwe A1 - Hadjidimitriou, Natalia Selini A1 - Zittel, Janina A1 - Xu, Xiaofei A1 - Koch, Thorsten T1 - A Hybrid Approach for High Precision Prediction of Gas Flows N2 - About 20% of the German energy demand is supplied by natural gas. Ad- ditionally, for about twice the amount Germany serves as a transit country. Thereby, the German network represents a central hub in the European natural gas transport network. The transport infrastructure is operated by so-called transmissions system operators or TSOs. The number one priority of the TSOs is to ensure security of supply. However, the TSOs have no knowledge of the intentions and planned actions of the shippers (traders). Open Grid Europe (OGE), one of Germany’s largest TSO, operates a high- pressure transport network of about 12.000 km length. Since flexibility and security of supply is of utmost importance to the German Energy Transition (“Energiewende”) especially with the introduction of peak-load gas power stations, being able to predict in- and out-flow of the network is of great importance. In this paper we introduce a new hybrid forecast method applied to gas flows at the boundary nodes of a transport network. The new method employs optimized feature minimization and selection. We use a combination of an FAR, LSTM DNN and mathematical programming to achieve robust high quality forecasts on real world data for different types of network nodes. Keywords: Gas Forecast, Time series, Hybrid Method, FAR, LSTM, Mathematical Optimisation T3 - ZIB-Report - 19-26 Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-73525 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Petkovic, Milena A1 - Koch, Thorsten A1 - Zittel, Janina T1 - Deep learning for spatio-temporal supply and demand forecasting in natural gas transmission networks N2 - Germany is the largest market for natural gas in the European Union, with an annual consumption of approx. 95 billion cubic meters. Germany's high-pressure gas pipeline network is roughly 40,000 km long, which enables highly fluctuating quantities of gas to be transported safely over long distances. Considering that similar amounts of gas are also transshipped through Germany to other EU states, it is clear that Germany's gas transport system is essential to the European energy supply. Since the average velocity of gas in a pipeline is only 25km/h, an adequate high-precision, high-frequency forecasting of supply and demand is crucial for efficient control and operation of such a transmission network. We propose a deep learning model based on spatio-temporal convolutional neural networks (DLST) to tackle the problem of gas flow forecasting in a complex high-pressure transmission network. Experiments show that our model effectively captures comprehensive spatio-temporal correlations through modeling gas networks and consistently outperforms state-of-the-art benchmarks on real-world data sets by at least 21$\%$. The results demonstrate that the proposed model can deal with complex nonlinear gas network flow forecasting with high accuracy and effectiveness. T3 - ZIB-Report - 21-01 Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-81221 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Hoppmann-Baum, Kai A1 - Hennings, Felix A1 - Zittel, Janina A1 - Gotzes, Uwe A1 - Spreckelsen, Eva-Maria A1 - Spreckelsen, Klaus A1 - Koch, Thorsten T1 - From Natural Gas towards Hydrogen - A Feasibility Study on Current Transport Network Infrastructure and its Technical Control N2 - This study examines the usability of a real-world, large-scale natural gas transport infrastructure for hydrogen transport. We investigate whether a converted network can transport the amounts of hydrogen necessary to satisfy current energy demands. After introducing an optimization model for the robust transient control of hydrogen networks, we conduct computational experiments based on real-world demand scenarios. Using a representative network, we demonstrate that replacing each turbo compressor unit by four parallel hydrogen compressors, each of them comprising multiple serial compression stages, and imposing stricter rules regarding the balancing of in- and outflow suffices to realize transport in a majority of scenarios. However, due to the reduced linepack there is an increased need for technical and non-technical measures leading to a more dynamic network control. Furthermore, the amount of energy needed for compression increases by 364% on average. T3 - ZIB-Report - 20-27 KW - Hydrogen Transport KW - Hydrogen Infrastructure KW - Network Flows KW - Mixed Integer Programming KW - Energiewende Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-79901 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Yueksel-Erguen, Inci A1 - Zittel, Janina A1 - Wang, Ying A1 - Hennings, Felix A1 - Koch, Thorsten T1 - Lessons learned from gas network data preprocessing N2 - The German high-pressure natural gas transport network consists of thousands of interconnected elements spread over more than 120,000 km of pipelines built during the last 100 years. During the last decade, we have spent many person-years to extract consistent data out of the available sources, both public and private. Based on two case studies, we present some of the challenges we encountered. Preparing consistent, high-quality data is surprisingly hard, and the effort necessary can hardly be overestimated. Thus, it is particularly important to decide which strategy regarding data curation to adopt. Which precision of the data is necessary? When is it more efficient to work with data that is just sufficiently correct on average? In the case studies we describe our experiences and the strategies we adopted to deal with the obstacles and to minimize future effort. Finally, we would like to emphasize that well-compiled data sets, publicly available for research purposes, provide the grounds for building innovative algorithmic solutions to the challenges of the future. T3 - ZIB-Report - 20-13 Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-78262 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Yueksel-Erguen, Inci A1 - Most, Dieter A1 - Wyrwoll, Lothar A1 - Schmitt, Carlo A1 - Zittel, Janina T1 - Modeling the transition of the multimodal pan-European energy system including an integrated analysis of electricity and gas transport N2 - The European energy system has been through a fundamental transformation since the Paris Agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The transition involves several energy-generating and consuming sectors emphasizing sector coupling. The increase in the share of renewable energy sources has revealed the need for flexibility in the electri city grid. Thus, holistic planning of pathways towards decarbonized energy systems also involves assessing the gas infrastructure to provide such a flexibility and support for the security of supply. In this paper, we propose a workflow to investigate such optimal energy transition pathways considering sector coupling. This workflow involves an integrated operational analysis of the electricity market, its transmission grid, and the gas grid in high spatio-temporal resolution. In a case study on a pan-European scale between 2020-2050, we show that carbon neutrality can be reached within feasible additional costs and in time. However, the manifestation of the potential pathways strongly depends on political and technological constraints. Sector coupling acts as an enabler of cross-border cooperation to achieve both, decarbonization and security of supply. T3 - ZIB-Report - 22-17 Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-87774 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Clarner, Jan-Patrick A1 - Tawfik, Christine A1 - Koch, Thorsten A1 - Zittel, Janina T1 - Network-induced Unit Commitment - A model class for investment and production portfolio planning for multi-energy systems N2 - In light of the energy transition production planning of future decarbonized energy systems lead to very large and complex optimization problems. A widely used modeling paradigm for modeling and solving such problems is mathematical programming. While there are various scientific energy system models and modeling tools, most of them do not provide the necessary level of detail or the modeling flexibility to be applicable for industrial usage. Industrial modeling tools, on the other hand, provide a high level of detail and modeling flexibility. However, those models often exhibit a size and complexity that restricts their scope to a time horizon of several months, severely complicating long-term planning. As a remedy, we propose a model class that is detailed enough for real-world usage but still compact enough for long-term planning. The model class is based on a generalized unit commitment problem on a network with investment decisions. The focus lies on the topological dependency of different energy production and transportation units. T3 - ZIB-Report - 22-16 KW - Multi-energy systems KW - Unit commitment KW - Investment planning Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-87607 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Hennings, Felix A1 - Hoppmann-Baum, Kai A1 - Zittel, Janina T1 - Optimizing transient gas network control for challenging real-world instances using MIP-based heuristics N2 - Optimizing the transient control of gas networks is a highly challenging task. The corresponding model incorporates the combinatorial complexity of determining the settings for the many active elements as well as the non-linear and non-convex nature of the physical and technical principles of gas transport. In this paper, we present the latest improvements of our ongoing work to solve this problem for real-world, large-scale problem instances: By adjusting our mixed-integer non-linear programming model regarding the gas compression capabilities in the network, we reflect the technical limits of the underlying units more accurately while maintaining a similar overall model size. In addition, we introduce a new algorithmic approach that is based on splitting the complexity of the problem by first finding assignments for discrete variables and then determining the continuous variables as locally optimal solution of the corresponding non-linear program. For the first task, we design multiple different heuristics based on concepts for general time-expanded optimization problems that find solutions by solving a sequence of sub-problems defined on reduced time horizons. To demonstrate the competitiveness of our approach, we test our algorithm on particularly challenging historic demand scenarios. The results show that high-quality solutions are obtained reliably within short solving times, making the algorithm well-suited to be applied at the core of time-critical industrial applications. T3 - ZIB-Report - 22-08 Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-86842 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Pedersen, Jaap A1 - Le, Thi Thai A1 - Koch, Thorsten A1 - Zittel, Janina T1 - Optimal discrete pipe sizing for tree-shaped CO2 networks N2 - While energy-intensive industries like the steel industry plan to switch to renewable energy sources, other industries, such as the cement industry, have to rely on carbon capture storage and utilization technologies to reduce the inevitable carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of their production processes. In this context, we investigate the problem of finding optimal pipeline diameters from a discrete set of diameters for a tree-shaped network transporting captured CO2 from multiple sources to a single sink. The general problem of optimizing arc capacities in potential-based fluid networks is a challenging mixed-integer nonlinear program. Additionally, the behaviour of CO2 is highly sensitive and nonlinear regarding temperature and pressure changes. We propose an iterative algorithm splitting the problem into two parts: a) the pipe-sizing problem under a fixed supply scenario and temperature distribution and b) the thermophysical modelling including mixing effects, the Joule-Thomson effect, and heat exchange with the surrounding environment. We show the effectiveness of our approach by applying our algorithm to a real-world network planning problem for a CO2 network in Western Germany. T3 - ZIB-Report - 22-15 KW - CO2 Transport KW - Network Design KW - Pipeline Sizing Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-87574 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Lindner, Niels A1 - Mehl, Lukas A1 - Bartoszuk, Karolina A1 - Berendes, Sarah A1 - Zittel, Janina T1 - Demand Uncertainty in Energy Systems: Scenario Catalogs vs. Integrated Robust Optimization N2 - Designing efficient energy systems is indispensable for shaping a more sustainable society. This involves making infrastructure investment decisions that must be valid for a long-term time horizon. While energy system optimization models constitute a powerful technique to support planning decisions, they need to cope with inherent uncertainty. For example, predicting future demand on a scale of decades is not only an intricate challenge in itself, but small fluctuations in such a forecast might also largely impact the layout of a complex energy system. In this paper, we compare two methodologies of capturing demand uncertainty for linear-programming based energy system optimization models. On one hand, we generate and analyze catalogs of varying demand scenarios, where each individual scenario is considered independently, so that the optimization produces scenario-specific investment pathways. On the other hand, we make use of robust linear programming to meet the demand of all scenarios at once. Since including a multitude of scenarios increases the size and complexity of the optimization model, we will show how to use warm-starting approaches to accelerate the computation process, by exploiting the similar structure of the linear program across different demand inputs. This allows to integrate a meaningful number of demand scenarios with fully-fledged energy system models. We demonstrate the practical use of our methods in a case study of the Berlin-Brandenburg area in Germany, a region that contains both a metropolitan area and its rural surroundings. As a backbone, we use the open-source framework oemof to create a sector-coupled optimization model for planning an energy system with up to 100% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. This model features a fine-grained temporal resolution of one hour for the full year 2050. We consider uncertainty in demand for electricity, hydrogen, natural gas, central, and decentral heat. Based on our computations, we analyze the trade-offs in terms of quality and computation time for scenario catalogs and the robust optimization approach. We further demonstrate that our procedure provides a valuable strategy for decision makers to gain insight on the robustness and sensitivity of solutions regarding demand variability. T3 - ZIB-Report - 25-19 Y1 - 2025 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-102404 SN - 1438-0064 ER -