U.S. consumption of natural gas for electric generation has increased significantly within the last 10 years and is likely to continue to grow to support renewable integration. Gas and electric modeling has been a challenge throughout the industry, and only a limited number of technically detailed models are available to support the co-simulation effort. Extensive simulations are limited by a lack of realistic data on supply and pipelines as well as the need for a better picture of heating load as the industry transitions from gas to electric. Such information will be especially relevant for transmission planning in already congested urban areas necessitating a detailed pipeline model.
This report describes the data needs for gas modeling for an electric sector audience including pipeline networks and their major components, necessary model inputs to simulate a gas network, typical results obtained from a hydraulic simulation, and the decisions or questions a gas model can inform. The last chapter provides data for a pipeline in the southeastern United States based on publicly available data. With this small but realistic data set, electricity modelers will be able to better simulate gas networks to increase understanding of the reliability, resilience, and economic impacts that gas supply has on the electric system – including the impacts of common cause and extreme events as well as many other gas/electric coordination challenges.
Authors Robin Hytowitz., Erik Ela, and Nidhi R. Santen