Planning of a distributed integrated cooling system in reducing the peak power consumption

Abstract

A distributed integrated cooling system, including cold supply and cold storage, can store cold energy during the valley electricity period and release cold energy during peak electricity period, thus effectively realizing cutting peak electricity loads can achieve higher economic performance and capacity factors. However, a distributed integrated cooling system’s planning suffers from lacking systematic guidance in planning and optimal operation. This paper presented an efficient analytical planning method considering cutting peak electricity power and the corresponding compensating cost and inducted the condition of applying an integrated cooling system. The critical operating electricity price and economic equilibrium electricity price are presented as two indexes to evaluate the economic condition of operating and constructing an integrated cooling system. The analytical planning model is validated to be exact and efficient by the numerical simulation due to less iteration. The planning results show that a distributed integrated cooling system is fully utilized during a year, but the relative ability to cut peak electricity load decreases with electrical loads. Because the compensating cost is lower than the price differences between peak and flat-peak electricity prices, which is cheaper than a battery, a distributed integrated cooling system is a cost-effective technology for cutting peak electricity loads.

Keywords

• Integrated cooling system planning method
• Cutting peak loads
• Critical operating electricity price
• Economic equilibrium electricity price
• Compensating cost
• Optimal cold storage capacity