Caracterización, análisis y optimización de patrones de demanda energética en aeropuertos

Abstract

Airports are infrastructures with very diverse facilities, where the exchange between air and ground transport is performed. A wide range of services are offered, from the most essential for airports and aeronautical activities, to complementary activities such as attention to passengers, companions or companies. The number of air operations and airport services over the past 20 years has increased rapidly, and this has led to a rise in the energy needs of airports to satisfy this demand. As a consequence, the cost of energy supply for airport operators has escalated. At the same time, global energy consumption has soared due to the needs of emerging countries, with the consequent environmental impact. This complex scenario of environmental and economic factors has made airport managers become aware of the need to reduce energy consumption as well as to achieve a more efficient energy use. A key factor in order to reduce energy consumption in airports is initially to understand the energy use and consumption behavior of this kind of infrastructure, due to the multiple parameters and singularities that are involved, such as the climatology of the location, the behavior of the occupants, or the number of air operations and passengers, for example. For this issue, in this Ph.D. Dissertation a 3-step methodology based on monitoring methods by end-use-submetering is initially proposed in order to characterize and analyze energy demand patterns in airports through the analysis of their electric load profiles, and is applied to the real case of the Seve Ballesteros-Santander Airport (Santander, Spain). This methodology can also be used in order to determine the way energy is used, to establish the classification of the loads based on their operation way, as well as to determine the main energy consumers and main external influences in the airport under evaluation. From this previous characterization, a new energy system model for airports based on demand side management (DSM) strategies and elements is proposed in order to achieve both the optimal load scheduling and the best integration of local energy sources and commercial grid into the airport energy system. This DSM model includes a specific load scheduling optimization technique for airports based on the Monte Carlo methodology, which is formulated and implemented on an original software simulation tool based on Python programming. The aim of this technique is to optimize several energy and economic indicators of the airport daily electric load profile according to both the optimal load scheduling proposed and the minimum airport quality of service established, which is a parameter that determines the maximum degree of degradation allowed in the operation of airport services. Simulation results based on the real case of the Seve Ballesteros-Santander Airport are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique. Both the previous methodology, airport energy system model, load scheduling optimization technique and software simulation tool can be applied by energy researchers or airport managers in order to characterize, analyze and optimize the energy demand patterns in any other given airport.