A method for optimizing installation capacity and operation strategy of a hybrid renewable energy system with offshore wind energy for a green container terminal

The contribution of this paper is to provide a method for optimizing installation capacity and operation strategy of a hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) with offshore wind energy for container terminals. A mixed integer optimization model of the HRES is proposed, in which maximum environmental and economic benefits are considered as two objectives, and energy supply and demand balances, energy storage balances, technical constraints and quantity limitations are considered as constraints. However, container terminals typically execute many complicated and stochastic operation processes, and thus represent highly dynamic energy demands. Therefore, a simulation-based optimization algorithm is developed to resolve the optimization model, which consists of a simulation model and an optimization module. The simulation model is constructed to overcome the stochastic characteristics and obtain the hourly energy demands in container terminals, which are fed into the optimization module. While, the optimization module is used to search the solution space and provide the final decisions under three evaluation strategies: cost-saving, low-carbon, and trade-off strategy. Finally, taking a container terminal in Northeast China as an example, optimal results are obtained by the proposed algorithm, which can be used to provide references for power department policy making and green container terminal construction. •Optimizing installation capacity and operation strategy of a HRES for container terminals.•Developing a simulation-based model to output the hourly energy demands in container terminals at each time step.•Proposing a simulation-based optimization method to resolve the optimization model.