Optimal industrial load control in smart grid: A case study for oil refineries

The current literature on optimal load control is mainly focused on residential and commercial load sectors. In this paper, we investigate optimal load control for industrial load which involves several new and distinct research challenges. For example, while most residential appliances operate independently, industrial units are highly inter-dependent and must follow a certain operational sequence. This is particularly the case in industries that involve process control: each unit can start operation only if its feeding units finish their operations. Considering an oil refinery industry as an example, we not only identify some of the most important operational sequences in this particular industry, but also develop mathematical models that can help us integrate the identified operational sequences in an optimization-based industrial load control framework. We assess the performance of our design through various simulations.