Long-term economic planning of combined cooling heating and power systems considering energy storage and demand response

Combined cooling, heating, and power (CCHP) systems have become a promising solution for energy conservation and emission reduction. The role of energy storage and demand response has recently received an increasing interest in CCHP systems. This paper addresses the long-term economic planning of a renewable CCHP system considering energy storage and demand response. A case study of a small town in Tianjin, China is used for demonstration. Four scenarios are analyzed to showcase the impact of energy storage and demand response on CCHP long-term planning. The results show that either energy storage or demand response can improve CCHP economic performance. However, since energy storage requires more intensive capital investment, it is considered inferior to demand response. Moreover, in comparison with no energy storage and demand response, introducing energy storage and implementing demand response can reduce system total cost by 6.45% and 11.73%, respectively. Furthermore, combining both of them has a synergistic effect and can reduce system total cost by 14.66%. Hence, we conclude that energy storage and demand response should be considered in CCHP long-term planning for better performance.