Impacts of temporal precision in optimisation modelling of micro-Combined Heat and Power

When modelling the environmental and economic aspects of meeting a given heat and power demand with a combination of combined heat and power (CHP) and grid power, it is common to use a coarse temporal precision such as 1-h demand blocks in heat and power demand data. This may be appropriate for larger applications where demand is reasonably smooth, but becomes questionable for applications where demand exhibits substantial volatility such as for a single residential dwelling—an important potential market for the commercialisation of small-scale fuel cells and other micro-CHP. Choice of temporal precision is also influenced by the relative ease in obtaining coarse data, their compatibility with available energy price data, and avoidance of computational overheads when data sets expand. The thesis of this paper is that use of such coarse temporal precision leads to averaging effects that result in misleading environmental and economic outcomes for cost-optimal micro-CHP systems. Much finer temporal precision is required to capture adequately the specific characteristics of residential energy demand and the technical qualities of solid oxide fuel cell and stirling engine micro-CHP systems. This thesis is generally supported by the results of analysis, which shows that in some cases optimal design generation capacity of the CHP system is reduced by more than half between analyses using 1-h precision and 5-min precision energy demand data. When optimal dispatch of given generator and boiler capacities is considered, the quantities of energy delivered by the various components of the energy provision system (i.e. generation from CHP, heat from CHP, heat from an additional boiler, electricity from grid) varied by up to 40% between precisions analysed. Total CO₂ emissions reduction is overestimated by up to 40% by the analyses completed using coarse demand data for a given micro-CHP generator capacity. The economic difference is also significant at up to 8% of lifetime costs for a given micro-CHP generator capacity.     

Application of an improved operational strategy on a PBI fuel cell-based residential system for Danish single-family households

A proposed residential energy system based on the PBI (Polybenzimidazole) fuel cell technology is analyzed in terms of operational performance. Conventional operational strategies, such as heat-led and electricity-led, are applied to the simulated system to investigate their performance characteristics. Based on these findings, an improved operational strategy is formulated and applied in an attempt to minimize the shortcomings of conventional strategies. System parameters, such as electrical and thermal efficiencies, heat dumping, and import/export of electricity, are analyzed. The applied load profile is based on average data for a single-family household in Denmark and includes consumption data for electricity and heat demands. The study analyzes the potential of the proposed system on market penetration in the area of residential heat-and-power generation and whether this deployment can be justified as compared to other micro-CHP system technologies. The most important findings of this research study indicate that in comparison to non-fuel cell-based micro-CHP systems, such as Stirling Engine-based systems, the proposed system has significantly higher efficiencies. Moreover, the lower heat-to-power ratios allow the system to avoid high thermal surpluses throughout the whole annual operational profile.     

Solid oxide fuel cell micro combined heat and power system operating strategy: Options for provision of residential space and water heating

Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) based micro combined heat and power (micro-CHP) systems exhibit fundamentally different characteristics from other common micro-CHP technologies. Of particular relevance to this article is that they have a low heat-to-power ratio and may benefit from avoidance of thermal cycling. Existing patterns of residential heat demand in the UK, often characterised by morning and evening heating periods, do not necessarily complement the characteristics of SOFC based micro-CHP in an economic and technical sense because of difficulties in responding to large rapid heat demands (low heat-to-power ratio) and preference for continuous operation (avoidance of thermal cycling). In order to investigate modes of heat delivery that complement SOFC based micro-CHP a number of different heat demand profiles for a typical UK residential dwelling are considered along with a detailed model of SOFC based micro-CHP technical characteristics. Economic and environmental outcomes are modelled for each heat demand profile. A thermal energy store is then added to the analysis and comment is made on changes in economic and environmental parameters, and on the constraints of this option. We find that SOFC-based micro-CHP is best suited to slow space heating demands, where the heating system is on constantly during virtually all of the winter period. Thermal energy storage is less useful where heat demands are slow, but is better suited to cases where decoupling of heat demand and heat supply can result in efficiencies.     

Impact of micro-combined heat-and-power systems on energy flows in the UK electricity supply industry

The effects of applying micro-CHP systems to a single dwelling, and to various dwellings within a group, are investigated by using gas and electricity consumption data recorded on a 1-min time base across a full year. Micro-CHP systems based on Stirling engines and fuel cells are predicted to supply 25–46% of the single dwelling's annual electricity demand. For all days of the year, the daily load factor of the resultant load placed on the electricity network is reduced, suggesting that the overall effect of micro-CHP systems will be to provide highly dispersed base-load generation. Consideration of various penetration levels of a 1 kW Stirling engine micro-CHP system of 15% electrical efficiency indicates that the maximum reduction in the aggregate peak load for a single distribution transformer will be about 44% on a winter's day, but only 3% on a summer's day. An alternative implementation of 3 kW fuel cell systems of 50% electrical efficiency would yield significant reductions (both in the peak load and the daily requirement for network electricity) at low penetration levels, with significant reverse flows occurring at the distribution transformer once the penetration level exceeds approximately 15% on a winter's day.     

Techno-economic modelling of a solid oxide fuel cell stack for micro combined heat and power

Solid oxide fuel cell combined heat and power (CHP) is a promising technology to serve electricity and heat demands. In order to analyse the potential of the technology, a detailed techno-economic energy-cost minimisation model of a micro-CHP system is developed drawing on steady-state and dynamic SOFC stack models and power converter design. This model is applied it to identify minimum costs and optimum stack capacities under various current density change constraints. Firstly, a characterisation of the system electrical efficiency is developed through the combination of stack efficiency profiles and power converter efficiency profiles. Optimisation model constraints are then developed, including a limitation in the change of current density (A cm⁻²) per minute in the stack. The optimisation model is then presented and further expanded to account for the inability of a stack to respond instantaneously to load changes, resulting in a penalty function being applied to the objective function proportional to the size of load changes being serviced by the stack. Finally, the optimisation model is applied to examine the relative importance, in terms of minimum cost and optimum stack maximum electrical power output capacity, of the limitation on rate of current density change for a UK residential micro-CHP application. It is found that constraints on the rate of change in current density are not an important design parameter from an economic perspective.     

The capacity credit of micro-combined heat and power

This article is concerned with development of a methodology to determine the capacity credit of micro-combined heat and power (micro-CHP), and application of the method for the UK. Capacity credit is an important parameter in electricity system planning because it measures the amount of conventional generation that would be displaced by an alternative technology. Firstly, a mathematical formulation is presented. Capacity credit is then calculated for three types of micro-CHP units—Stirling engine, internal combustion engine, and fuel cell systems—operating under various control strategies. It is found that low heat-to-power ratio fuel cell technologies achieve the highest capacity credit of approximately 85% for a 1.1 GW penetration when a heat-led control strategy is applied. Higher heat-to-power ratio Stirling engine technology achieves approximately 33% capacity credit for heat-led operation. Low heat-to-power ratio technologies achieve higher capacity credit because they are able to continue operating even when heat demand is relatively low. Capacity credit diminishes as penetration of the technology increases. Overall, the high capacity credit of micro-CHP contributes to the viewpoint that the technology can help meet a number of economic and environmental energy policy aims.     

Energy supply performance and environmental load‐reduction effect of a cogeneration system for an apartment building using distributed heat storage technology

In order to make distributed generation systems for apartment buildings economically viable, it is essential to develop an efficient and low‐cost heat supply system. We are developing a new cogeneration system (Neighboring CoGeneration system: NCG system). The key concept of this system is to install a heat storage unit for the hot water supply, floor heating, and bath heating in each house, and to connect the heat storage units by a single‐loop hot water pipe. The system leads to time leveling of the total heat supply and reduced installation costs. Furthermore, it is expected that the cogeneration can operate according to electrical demand because of the large heat storage capacity of the system. In this study, a dynamic simulation model is developed to evaluate the performance and environmental load‐reduction effect of the NCG system for 50 households. The results show that the NCG system can supply sufficient heat for peak demand in winter and reduce annual CO₂ emissions by 23% on average. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 42(8): 745–757, 2013; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/htj ). DOI 10.1002/htj.20376     

Multi‐objective optimization design of plate‐fin vapor generator for supercritical organic Rankine cycle

Supercritical organic Rankine cycle (SORC) is an improved ORC architecture with lower exergy destruction and better heat source utilization when compared with a subcritical one. The accurate design of its vapor generator is of critical importance due to the fact that heat transfer performance significantly affects thermal efficiency, power output, and size of the overall system. This paper aims to develop a mathematical model of the SORC vapor generator using plate‐fin heat exchanger. The finite volume method is applied to deal with the properties' variation problem of the supercritical fluids. Multi‐objective optimization is employed by the nondominated sorting genetic algorithm II to find the optimum geometry design. The objective functions are the number of entropy production units, annual cost, and volume. For a specific SORC system, an optimum vapor generator is designed using the developed model. Parametric studies are conducted to assess the effect of geometry parameters on the vapor generator performance. The off‐design performance of the vapor generator is also evaluated under different mass flow rates and different heat source inlet temperature conditions.     

热泵系统中的多机组运行负荷配比优化研究

基于某建筑的全年逐时能耗模拟数据,通过MATLAB软件的非线性结构优化功能对热泵系统中多台机组的运行负荷配比方案进行优化,提出最优的机组运行负荷配比方案。研究表明:在逐时负荷大于单台或多台机组装机容量时,随着逐时负荷增加到运行机组总装机容量的70%左右时,各台机组运行负荷占各机组额定容量的百分比趋于相同;热泵系统采用最少台数的机组运行可有效提高系统的运行性能。根据部分负荷下机组负荷配比原则,给出机组在不同日负荷特性曲线下的运行方案。     

On policy instruments for support of micro combined heat and power

The performance of residential micro combined heat and power (micro-CHP)—a technology to provide heat and some electricity to individual dwellings—is generally dependent on the magnitude of household thermal energy demand. Dwellings with larger and more consistent thermal consumption perform well economically and achieve greater greenhouse gas emissions savings. Consequently, the performance of micro-CHP is dependent on the level of thermal insulation in a dwelling. Therefore, emerging policy approaches regarding energy use in the residential sector, which generally support both energy efficiency measures such as thermal insulation and adoption of micro-CHP, may inadvertently incentivise micro-CHP installation where CO₂ reductions are meagre or not cost-effective. This article examines this issue in terms of the changes in economic and environmental performance that occur for three micro-CHP technologies under changing patterns of residential thermal insulation in the United Kingdom. The results of this analysis are used to comment on the structure of policy instruments that support micro-CHP. It is found that simultaneous support for energy efficiency measures and micro-CHP can be justified, but care must be taken to ensure that the heat-to-power ratio and capacity of the micro-CHP system are appropriate for the expected thermal demand of the target dwelling.     

Cost-effective operating strategy for residential micro-combined heat and power

It is commonly assumed that dispatch of micro-combined heat and power (micro-CHP) should be heat driven, where the unit turns on when a heat load is present, and turns off or modulates when there is little or no heat demand. However, this heat led operating strategy—typical of large-scale CHP applications—may not be economically justified as scale decreases. This article investigates cost-effective operating strategies for three micro-CHP technologies; Stirling engine, gas engine, and solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), under reasonable estimates of energy prices. The cost of meeting a typical UK residential energy demand is calculated for hypothetical heat led and electricity led operating strategies, and compared with that of an optimal strategy. Using central estimates of price parameters, and with some thermal energy storage present in the system, it is shown that the least cost operating strategy for the three technologies is to follow heat and electricity load during winter months, rather than using either heat demand or electricity demand as the only dispatch signal. Least cost operating strategy varies between technologies in summer months. In terms of environmental outcomes, the least cost operating strategy does not always result in the lowest carbon dioxide emissions. The results obtained are sensitive to electricity buy-back rate.     

Micro-combined heat and power in residential and light commercial applications

The cogeneration is worldwide considered as the major option to achieve considerable energy saving with respect to traditional systems. This paper deals with the application of micro-cogeneration (electrical power <15 kW) to small scale (residential and light commercial application) users; the state of art of this technology is considered and an energetic analysis of MCHP system regarding its utilization in conjuction with domestic household appliances is performed. Finally the test facility designed and built to evaluate the performance of micro-CHP system itself is described and the optimum operation mode to match the user’s thermal and electrical loads identified.     

Optimal sizing of battery storage for hybrid (wind+diesel) power systems

Hourly mean wind-speed data for the period 1986–1997 [except the years 1989 (some data is missing) and 1991 (Gulf War)] recorded at the solar radiation and meteorological monitoring station, Dhahran (26°C 32′ N, 50° 13′ E), Saudi Arabia, have been analyzed to investigate the optimum size of battery storage capacity for hybrid (wind+diesel) energy conversion systems at Dhahran. The monthly average wind speeds for Dhahran range from 4.12 to 6.42 m/s. As a case study, the hybrid system considered in the present analysis consists of two 10 kW Wind Energy Conversion Systems (WECS), together with a battery storage system and a diesel back-up. The yearly and monthly average energy generated from the above hybrid system have been presented. More importantly, the study explores the impact of variation of battery storage capacity on hybrid power generation. The results exhibit a trade-off between size of the storage capacity and diesel power to be generated to cope with specific annual load distribution [41,500], and for given energy generation from WECS. The energy to be generated from the back-up diesel generator and the number of operational hours of the diesel system to meet a specific annual electrical energy demand have also been presented. The diesel back-up system is operated at times when the power generated from WECS fails to satisfy the load and when the battery storage is depleted. The present study shows that for economic considerations, for optimum use of battery storage and for optimum operation of diesel system, storage capacity equivalent to one to three days of maximum monthly average daily demand needs to be used. It has been found that the diesel energy to be generated without any storage is considerably high; however, use of one day of battery storage reduces diesel energy generation by about 35%; also the number of hours of operation of the diesel system are reduced by about 52%.     

Controlling micro-CHP systems to modulate electrical load profiles

As micro-CHP systems move towards mass deployment an increasing emphasis will be placed on their effect on time-varying demands for network electricity. A 50 dwelling data set of heat and power demands was employed to investigate the implementation of various penetrations of μCHP system on the resultant electrical load profile using two control methodologies: heat-led and a proposed method for modulating the aggregate electrical load. The first caused the daily load factor of the net load profile to decrease from 42.5% to 28.6% on a January day and the after diversity maximum demand to decrease from 2.0 to 1.2 kW. The second caused the daily load factor to increase from 42.5% to 48.6% and the after diversity maximum demand to decrease from 2.0 to 0.9 kW. The extent to which these improvements in load factor can be achieved was investigated in detail and maximum resultant load factor values were identified for a day in January, April and July. Further improvements in the modulating capability of this control approach may be realised if prime movers capable of rapid start-up, shut-down and cycling can be developed. The control of micro-CHP systems in this manner offers a mechanism for managing the load at distribution transformers.     

Thermoeconomic modeling of micro-CHP (micro-cooling,heating, and power) for small commercial applications

The increasing demand for electrical power as well as energy for heating and cooling of residences and small commercial buildings is a growing worldwide concern. Micro-cooling, heating, and power (micro-CHP), typically designated as less than 30 kW electric, is decentralized electricity generation coupled with thermally activated components for residential and small commercial applications. The number of combinations of components and parameters in a micro-CHP system is too many to be designed through experimental work alone. Therefore, theoretical models for different micro-CHP components and complete micro-CHP systems are needed to facilitate the design of these systems and to study their performance. This paper presents a model for micro-CHP systems for residential and small commercial applications. Some of the results that can be obtained using the developed model include the cost per month of operation of using micro-CHP versus conventional technologies, the amount of fuel per month required to run micro-CHP systems, the overall efficiency of micro-CHP systems, etc. A case study is used to demonstrate differences in the system performances of micro-CHP systems driven by a natural gas internal combustion engine and a diesel engine. Some of the results show that both systems have similar performance and that system total efficiencies in cooler months of up to 80% could be obtained. Also, modeling results show that there is a limit in fuel price that economically prevents the use of CHP systems, which is $11 MBTU⁻¹ for this specific case. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Generation unit sizing and cost analysis for stand-alone wind,photovoltaic, and hybrid wind/PV systems

This paper presents the results of investigations on the application of wind, photovoltaic (PV), and hybrid wind/PV power generating systems for utilization as stand-alone systems. A simple numerical algorithm has been developed for generation unit sizing. It has been used to determine the optimum generation capacity and storage needed for a stand-alone, wind, PV, and hybrid wind/PV system for an experimental site in a remote area in Montana with a typical residential load. Generation and storage units for each system are properly sized in order to meet the annual load and minimize the total annual cost to the customer. In addition, an economic analysis has been performed for the above three scenarios and is used to justify the use of renewable energy versus constructing a line extension from the nearest existing power line to supply the load with conventional power. Annual average hourly values for load, wind speed, and insolation have been used     

Optimal day-ahead energy planning of multi-energy microgrids considering energy storage and demand response

Due to the environmental and economic advantages of combined heat and power (CHP) units, their use in power grids has expanded. The entry of CHP into power systems increases the complexity of the economic power flow problem. This complexity is due to the introduction of multiple constraints into problem. A mere electricity supply is not optimal in today's networks, and energies such as heat, power and gas must be planned and managed simultaneously as an energy hub. Therefore, in this paper, an intelligent multi-energy microgrid (MG) consisting of power generation units, CHP units and gas units is modeled for day-ahead energy management (DAEM). The economic distribution problem focuses on the amount of power generation, heat and gas of the units in the system. In contrast, the total generation cost of the system is minimized, and all the equality and inequality constraints of the problem are observed. The proposed microgrid includes various energy-dependent equipment such as CHP units, gas boilers, electricity-to-gas units, power and heat storage units and electric heat pumps. Also, price-based load management was included to reduce costs due to the transfer of information between the consumer and the generator in the context of smartization. Since the above problem is difficult to solve due to various constraints and decision parameters, a newly developed optimization method based on water flows was proposed. The simple movement of water flows on the ground is efficient and optimal and always follows the shortest and fastest path to reach the deepest point. In the proposed algorithm, simple movements of water in routing, a change of direction and even the creation of rapids and vortices were simulated as various mathematical operators. Finally, the proposed model and method were examined in different scenarios. The numerical outcomes demonstrated that, the proposed modeling framework is superior to hub-based multi-carrier microgrid models in terms of power system security. The sensitivity of operational expenses to changes in initial values of energy storage systems (ESS) and thermal storage system (TSS) is proved that the cost of operation reduces as the baseline values of ESS and TSS are reduced to 0.2% of the maximum capacity. Because DAEM performance is less flexible when the primary values are reduced by 0.2% of the maximum value, the system running expenses increase marginally.     

A district heating system based on absorption heat exchange with CHP systems

In order to decrease the energy consumption of large-scale district heating systems with cogeneration, a district heating system is presented in this paper based on absorption heat exchange in the cogeneration system named Co-ah cycle, which means that the cogeneration system is based on absorption heat exchange. In substations of the heating system, the temperature of return water of primary heat network is reduced to about 25°C through the absorption heat-exchange units. In the thermal station of the cogeneration plant, return water is heated orderly by the exhaust steam in the condenser, the absorption heat pumps, and the peak load heater. Compared with traditional heating systems, this system runs with a greater circuit temperature drop so that the delivery capacity of the heat network increases dramatically. Moreover, by recovering the exhausted heat from the condensers, the capacity of the district heating system and the energy efficiency of the combined heat and power system (CHP system) are highly developed. Therefore, high energy and economic efficiency can be obtained.     

A district heating system based on absorption heat exchange with CHP systems

In order to decrease the energy consumption of large-scale district heating systems with cogeneration, a district heating system is presented in this paper based on absorption heat exchange in the cogeneration system named Co-ah cycle, which means that the cogeneration system is based on absorption heat exchange. In substations of the heating system, the temperature of return water of primary heat network is reduced to about 25°C through the absorption heat-exchange units. In the thermal station of the cogeneration plant, return water is heated orderly by the exhaust steam in the condenser, the absorption heat pumps, and the peak load heater. Compared with traditional heating systems, this system runs with a greater circuit temperature drop so that the delivery capacity of the heat network increases dramatically. Moreover, by recovering the exhausted heat from the condensers, the capacity of the district heating system and the energy efficiency of the combined heat and power system (CHP system) are highly developed. Therefore, high energy and economic efficiency can be obtained.     

基于柔性负荷的孤立多能互补建筑能源系统优化设计

构建基于柔性负荷的多能互补建筑能源系统是解决孤立乡村能源供给问题的有效手段。采用Matlab/Simulink建立孤立多能互补建筑能源系统优化模型,并以系统的费用年值最低为优化目标,基于遗传算法求解计算。研究结果表明,与不考虑柔性负荷相比,柔性电负荷、柔性热负荷、柔性电/热负荷参与调节时,系统的费用年值分别降低了5.24%、33.11%与35.50%。柔性电负荷参与调节后,负荷向光伏出力时段平移,储能电池和柴油发电机的容量得以降低。与仅有柔性热负荷参与调节相比,柔性电、热负荷同时参与调节时,室内温度波动平缓,波动振幅小。