Multi-objective two-stage adaptive robust planning method for an integrated energy system considering load uncertainty

•Build the load uncertainty model of incorporating the annual load growth rate.•Integrate the grid integration level into multi-objective optimization.•Propose the multi-objective two-stage adaptive robust planning method.•Implement the planning method into an industrial park.•Analyze the influence of quantitative parameters on the evaluation indicator. An integrated energy system (IES) is considered as an effective approach to reduce carbon emissions, lower energy supply costs and increase system flexibility. As numerous energy conversion and storage devices with various features have been developed, determining their types and capacity size and optimizing the synergic action of all selected energy devices under load uncertainty have become challenging issues during the planning and designing of a new IES. To address these issues, a load uncertainty model is constructed by integrating the regional equivalent standard building-integrated load prediction method, the robust uncertainty set method and the fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm. Based on this uncertainty model, this paper proposes a planning method that incorporates the fuzzy multi-objective decision and two-stage adaptive robust optimization methods for handling these challenging issues. The multi-objective decision method enables comprehensive optimization based on the system's economic performance, carbon emissions and grid integration level. The two-stage adaptive robust optimization method aims to optimize the single-objective problem transformed by the multi-objective decision method. The planning method is implemented in an industrial park in the Baoding City of China. The influence of load budget uncertainty, annual load growth rate and energy purchase price is then investigated. The results show that the load budget uncertainty and annual load growth rate only affect the optimal capacity size of the selected devices, whereas the energy purchase price influences both the optimal device types and their capacity size. The optimal capacity size remains constant when the load budget uncertainty exceeds 3. This study provides a methodology to select the suitable device types and determine their capacity size for IES under load uncertainty, which will benefit the design of a new IES.