Modeling and Optimization of Energy Hubs: A Comprehensive Review

The concept of energy hubs has grown in prominence as a part of future energy systems, driven by the spread of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) and the inception of the smart grid. This paper systematically reviews 200 articles about energy hubs, published from 2007 to 2017, and summarizes them based on their modeling approach, planning and operation, economic and environmental considerations, and energy hub applications. The common applications of energy hubs are considered, such as distributed energy resources, the consideration of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs), and the hydrogen economy. This paper examines modeling approaches towards energy hubs, including storage and its network models; it mentions some of the optimization strategies used to tackle the efficient operation and control of energy hubs. The novelty of this work lies in the classification of research papers related to energy hubs, the development of a generic framework for modeling these multiple energy flow carriers with storage and network considerations, and the provision of solution techniques in line with energy hub optimization.