Dynamic programming based economic day-ahead scheduling of integrated tri-generation energy system with hybrid energy storage

Abstract Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is considered as a promising energy generation source in the future integrated energy system due to its high efficiency and flexibility in the combined cooling, heating and power (CCHP, tri-generation) system. However, optimization of the economic day-ahead scheduling is challenging due to various couplings between the energy storage components. To this end, an economic day-ahead scheduling model is proposed for the SOFC-based integrated tri-generation energy system (ITES), based on which dynamic programming (DP) is introduced for efficient solution. Considering the predicted cooling/heating/electric load profiles, the proposed dispatching optimization problem is constructed and solved by minimizing the fuel consumption subject to various device safety constraints. Simulation results based on a typical load scenario demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed optimization method. It is revealed that the ITES with hybrid electrical and thermal energy storage units can not only achieve higher overall efficiency than the system with a single energy storage unit, but also significantly reduce the running time of the energy conversion devices. The proposed optimization framework in this paper can efficiently coordinate the operation among the energy generation, conversion and consumption components, depicting a promising prospect in the application of future ITES.