A multi agent-based optimal control method for combined cooling and power systems with thermal energy storage

Combined cooling,heating and power(CCHP)systems have been considered as a potential energy saving technology for buildings due to their high energy efficiency and low carbon emission.Thermal energy storage(TES)can improve the energy efficiency of CCHP systems,since they reduce the mismatch between the energy supply and demand.However,it also increases the complexity of operation optimization of CCHP systems.In this study,a multi-agent system(MAS)-based optimal control method is proposed to minimize the operation cost of CCHP systems combined with TES.Four types of agents,i.e.,coordinator agents,building agents,energy management agents and optimization agents,are implemented in the MAS to cooperate with each other.The operation optimization problem is solved by the genetic algorithm.A simulated system is utilized to validate the performance of the proposed method.Results show that the operation cost reductions of 10.0%on a typical summer day and 7.7%on a typical spring day are achieved compared with a rule-based control method.A sensitivity analysis is further performed and results show that the optimal operation cost does not change obviously when the rated capacity of TES exceeds a threshold.

Water, Air Emissions, and Cost Impacts of Air-Cooled Microturbines for Combined Cooling, Heating, and Power Systems： A Case Study in the Atlanta Region

The increasing pace of urbanization means that cities and global organizations are looking for ways to increase energy efficiency and reduce emissions. Combined cooling, heating, and power （CCHP） systems have the potential to improve the energy generation efficiency of a city or urban region by providing energy for heating, cooling, and electricity simultaneously. The purpose of this study is to estimate the water consumption for energy generation use, carbon dioxide （CO2） and NOx emissions, and economic impact of implementing CCHP systems for five generic building types within the Atlanta metropolitan region, under various operational scenarios following the building thermal （heating and cooling） demands. Operating the CCHP system to follow the hourly thermal demand reduces CO2 emissions for most building types both with and without net metering. The system can be economically beneficial for all building types depending on the price of natural gas, the implementation of net metering, and the cost structure assumed for the CCHP system. The greatest reduction in water consumption for energy production and NOx emissions occurs when there is net metering and when the system is operated to meet the maximum yearly thermal demand, although this scenario also results in an increase in greenhouse gas emissions and, in some cases, cost. CCHP systems are more economical for medium office, large office, and multifamilv residential buildings.

A Comprehensive Study of a Low-Grade Heat-Driven Cooling and Power System Based on Heat Current Method

Combined cooling and power(CCP)system driven by low-grade heat is promising for improving energy efficiency.This work proposes a CCP system that integrates a regenerative organic Rankine cycle(RORC)and an absorption chiller on both driving and cooling fluid sides.The system is modeled by using the heat current method to fully consider nonlinear heat transfer and heat-work conversion constraints and resolve its behavior accurately.The off-design system simulation is performed next,showing that the fluid inlet temperatures and flow rates of cooling water as well as RORC working fluid strongly affect system performance.The off-design operation even becomes infeasible when parameters deviate from nominal values largely due to limited heat transfer capability of components,highlighting the importance of considering heat transfer constraints via heat current method.Design optimization aiming to minimize the total thermal conductance is also conducted.RORC efficiency increases by 7.9%and decreases by 12.4%after optimization,with the hot fluid inlet temperature increase from 373.15 to 403.15 K and mass flow rate ranges from 10 to 30 kg/s,emphasizing the necessity of balancing system cost and performance.

Operation Strategy Analysis and Configuration Optimization of Solar CCHP System

This paper proposed a new type of combined cooling heating and power(CCHP)system,including the parabolic trough solar thermal(PTST)power generation and gas turbine power generation.The thermal energy storage subsystem in the PTST unit provides both thermal energy and electrical energy.Based on the life cycle method,the configuration optimization under eight operation strategies is studied with the economy,energy,and environment indicators.The eight operation strategies include FEL,FEL-EC,FEL-TES,FEL-TES&EC,FTL,FTL-EC,FTL-TES,and FTL-TES&EC.The feasibility of each strategy is verified by taking a residential building cluster as an example.The indicators under the optimal configuration of each strategy are compared with that of the separate production(SP)system.The results showed that the PTST-CCHP system improves the environment and energy performance by changing the ratio of thermal energy and electric energy.The environment and energy indicators of FEL-TES&EC are superior to those of FTL-TES&EC in summer,and the results are just the opposite in winter.The initial annual investment of the PTST-CCHP system is higher than that of the SP system,but its economic performance is better than that of the SP system with the increase of life-cycle.

Dynamic Simulation and Performance Analysis on Multi-Energy Coupled CCHP System

Although the Combined Cooing,Heating and Power System(hereinafter referred to as“CCHP”)improves the capacity utilization rate and energy utilization efficiency,single use of CCHP system cannot realize dynamic matching between supply and demand loads due to the unbalance features of the user’s cooling and heating loads.On the basis of user convenience and wide applicability of clean air energy,this paper tries to put forward a coupled CCHP system with combustion gas turbine and ASHP ordered power by heat,analyze trends of such parameters as gas consumption and power consumption of heat pump in line with adjustment of heating load proportion of combustion gas turbine,and optimize the system ratio in the method of annual costs and energy environmental benefit assessment.Based on the analysis of the hourly simulation and matching characteristics of the cold and hot load of the 100 thousand square meter building,it is found that the annual cost of the air source heat pump is low,but the energy and environmental benefits are poor.It will lead to 6.35%shortage of cooling load in summer.Combined with the evaluation method of primary energy consumption and zero carbon dioxide emission,the coupling system of CHHP and air source heat pump with 41%gas turbine load ratio is the best configuration.This system structure and optimization method can provide some reference for the development of CCHP coupling system.

Energetic, economic, and environmental analysis of solid oxide fuel cell-based combined cooling, heating, and power system for cancer care hospital

In this study,energetic,economic,and environmental analysis of solid oxide fuel cell-based combined cooling,heating,and power(SOFC-CCHP)system is proposed for a cancer care hospital building.The energy required for the hospital power,cooling,and heating demands was obtained based on real and detailed field data,which could serve as a reference for future works in the field.These data with a 3D model for the hospital building are constructed and created in eQUEST software to precisely calculate the energy demands of the existing system(baseline case).Then,energetic,economic,and environmental models were developed to compare and assess the performance of the proposed SOFC-CCHP system.The results show that the proposed system can cover about 49% to 77% of the power demand of the hospital with an overall efficiency of 78.3%.Also,the results show that the levelized cost of electricity of the system and its payback period at the designed capacity of the SOFC is 0.087S/kWh and 10 years,respectively.Furthermore,compared to the baseline system of the hospital,the SOFC-CCHP reduces the CO_(2) emission by 89% over the year.The sensitivity analysis showed that a maximum SOFC efficiency of 52%and overall efficiency of 80%are achieved at cell operating temperature of 1027℃ and fuel utilization factor of 0.85.

Operation Strategy and Matching of Supply and Demand of CCHP System with Various Building Types

The important indications for assessing CCHP(combined cooling,heating and power)systems are their supply-demand matching characteristics between the user demand side and the energy supply side.These characteristics are primarily influenced by different building types and operating strategies.In view of the energy redundancy of the following electric load(FEL)and following thermal load(FTL)operation strategies and the energy deficiency of the following hybrid electric-heating load(FHL)operation strategy,this paper proposes an improved following balanced heat-electrical load(IFBL)operation strategy based on the following balanced heat-electrical load(FBL)operation strategy.Based on the energy utilization rate as the objective function,this paper optimizes the installed capacity of CCHP systems in different buildings and proposes an energy factor for evaluating the supply-demand matching characteristics of the system.The results show that the energy utilization rate and energy factor of the system under IFBL are optimal relative to the other operation strategies.Secondly,the hotel building has the highest energy utilization rate and the lowest energy factor;on the contrary,the office building has the lowest energy utilization rate and the highest energy factor.Finally,the analysis of supply-demand matching for different building types under multiple operating strategies shows that the hospital and hotel systems exhibit optimal supply-demand matching performance under the IFBL strategy,with values of 0.945 and 0.938,respectively;on the contrary,the office system has an optimal supply-demand matching of 0.935 under the FEL strategy.Under the FTL strategy,the systems of all three buildings exhibit poor matching performance.

Prime Mover Capacity Optimization and Thermodynamic Performance Analysis of Internal Combustion Engine Based CCHP System

In this research,a solar hybrid combined cooling heating and power(CCHP)system is proposed considering the different scenarios of Prime Movers(PMs)and the part-load performance of PMs is validated by the designed values from the manufacturer of Volvo.Moreover,a multi-optimization model based on a genetic algorithm is developed in order to select both the most promising performance PM and the most cost-effectiveness,environmentally friendly number of collectors for the proposed CCHP system,simultaneously.Then the hourly performance of this solar hybrid CCHP is determined through a case study of a hotel in Shanghai.Results show that the highest efficiency of the PM with larger capacity has the most promising performance and the collector number of 90 turns out to be a superior value for the hotel building based on the primary energy saving ratio of 61.61%.Moreover,on a typical summer day,the recovered waste heat and the solar energy can provide all the thermal energy demands,while,an auxiliary boiler should be started to fulfill the energy gap in both typical transition and winter days.From the simulation result,the CO_(2) emissions can be reduced by 856.2 t/a due to the solar energy introduced into the system.Besides,the dynamic investment payback period will change from 3.01 years to 3.56 years when the fuel price(P_(fuel))ranges from 0.8P_(fuel) to1.2P_(fuel).

Thermo-economic analysis of the performance of the combined system with evacuated tube collectors

Using combined cooling,heat and power systems can be an appropriate substitute for preventing emissions of pollutants and excessive consumption of fossil fuels.Utilizing renewable energy in these systems as a source of power generation can be an appropriate substitute for fossil-fuel-based systems.Therefore,in this paper,cogeneration cooling,heat and power systems based on gas-fired internal combustion engines with a solar-thermal system with evacuated tube collectors have been modelled and thermo-economic analysis has been done to compare fossil-fuel-based systems.The required rate of heat to supply the hot water is 50 kW.In the studied system,the internal combustion engine produces electrical energy.Then,the solar-thermal system with evacuated tube collectors and the gas-burning generator provide the thermal energy required by the studied building and the primary stimulus of the absorption chiller for cooling.In this study,two different scenarios are conducted in states considering simultaneous production systems and regardless of this environmental and thermo-economic analysis system.The results showed that the efficiency of the studied system was 60% in summer and 56% in winter.