2026/07/26 by Xiaoyu Fu, Yang Yang, Yonghua Song
Computer Science · Engineering · #cs.SY #eess.SY
10 pages, 8 figures, submitted to IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid
arxiv created 2026/07/30 · arxiv updated 2026/07/31
Ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) is a zero-carbon technology that harnesses the ocean's thermal gradient to generate electricity. Among OTEC variants, open-cycle OTEC is particularly attractive to island communities, as it can co-generate electricity and freshwater. This paper develops an integrated model that captures both the thermodynamic process of open-cycle OTEC and its operational role in an island microgrid. A two-stage robust scheduling model is formulated for the island microgrid, with a budget uncertainty set to capture the renewable output deviations. The resulting model is solved via an inexact column-and-constraint generation algorithm, which accelerates convergence by permitting inexact solutions of the first-stage problem in early iterations. Numerical experiments demonstrate that open-cycle OTEC can fully substitute for conventional generators on island microgrids and provide more reliable and dispatchable output than volatile renewable sources.