Evaluating Gas Network Capacities

The question of whether a certain amount of gas can be transported through a pipeline network is the subject of this book. Although the question is relatively simple to state, it turns out to be difficult to answer when asked in relation to a meshed nationwide gas transportation network and when taking into account the technical details and discrete decisions, as well as regulations, contracts, and varying demands involved. As well as providing an introduction to gas transportation planning, this book discusses in detail several mathematical models that address gas transport within the context of its technical and regulatory framework. It also shows how to solve the models using sophisticated algorithms, and includes examples of large-scale applications of mathematical optimization to this real-world problem. Readers will find a glossary of terms, tables listing the physical and technical quantities and constants used throughout, and a reference list of gas business literature.

Thorsten Koch is a Professor of Software and Algorithms for Discrete Optimization at TU Berlin and director of the Scientific Information Department at Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB). He joined ZIB in 1998, became a member of the DFG research center MATHEON in 2001 and has served as head of the Linear and Nonlinear Integer Programming Group since 2009. He has led joint research projects with industrial partners in the planning of infrastructure networks, chip verification, and integer programming.

Benjamin Hiller is a postdoctoral researcher at Zuse Institute Berlin. His research interests involve solution methods for large-scale real-world optimization problems, in particular mixed-integer (nonlinear) programming, and column generation. His recent work focuses on optimization problems related to gas transportation networks.

Marc Pfetsch was a postdoctoral researcher at Zuse Institute Berlin from 2002 until he completed his habilitation in 2008. That year he was appointed Full Professor for Mathematical Optimization at TU Braunschweig. Since 2012 he has been Full Professor for Discrete Optimization at TU Darmstadt. His research interests are integer and mixed-integer nonlinear programming, in particular infeasibility and symmetry handling.

Lars Schewe is a postdoctoral researcher at Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. His research interests include mixed-integer (nonlinear) optimization with an emphasis on problems in networks.