Otimização multi-objetivo de projetos de redes de transporte dutoviário de gás natural

Abstract

Transmition pipelines are especially designed pipes to transport a variety of products through long distances and represent the safest and most economical method of transporting large quantities of fluids. The natural gas pipelines, called gas pipelines, are employed in gas transportation from the production fields up to the consumer centers, where the gas is introducted in the distribution networks to be delivered to final consumers. The transportation pipelines present several attributes of natural monopoly which are the main economic reason for their regulation. Regulation aims to ensure the efficient exploration of this activity leading to fair transportation tariff to the consumers and reasonable return on investment to the investors, taking into account the amount of transported gas. In this context, the present work has the objective to propose methodologies for the multi-objective optimization of designs for natural gas transportation pipeline networks employing a posteriori methods. The formulated optimization issue comprises restrictions associated to gas flow and compressor stations behavior. The solution provides a group of optimum transport network designs concerning the maximization of the amount of transported natural gas and the minimization of the tariff associated to this service. The tool was employed in a variety of case studies with typical configurations of the natural gas transport industry. The results showed that the proposed methodologies are able to provide information which will permit that the decision maker, from the regulatory point of view, performs a trade-off analysis considering the amount of transported gas and the tariff, aiming to fulfill the society expectations concerning the exploration of transport service