Analysis of energy performance of a district cooling system with ice storage modules in China

It is calculated and tested energy performance of a district cooling system with ice storage modules in China. At first, on the basis of the typical climate data, TRNSYS software was utilized to numerically simulate and capture annual dynamic cooling load of buildings serviced by south region district cooling system in Tianjin Cultural Center. And then, according to the operation control strategy of the system in different part-load ratio, the cooling capacity and electricity consumption of refrigerating unit, electricity consumption of pumps, cooling loss of heat changers and pipelines were calculated. Thus the theoretical energy efficiency of the district cooling system in different cooling load ratio could be captured. During July 31, 2012 to September 16, 2012, the operation energy efficiency of the system was tested, which was relative difference 3.3% compared with theoretical calculation result of the counterpart cooling load. This result shows that the factors which affect energy efficiency are focused on part-load ratio, energy efficiency of refrigerating unit, electricity consumption of pumps and cooling loss of pipelines. Along with the decline of part-load ratio, the system energy efficiency reduces obviously. Each pump in this project adopts vary-frequency regulation, which energy-saving effect is remarkable. Part-load ratio has a little influence on pump energy consumption, and along with the decline of part-load ratio it increased slightly. But the cooling loss, caused by heat exchangers, pipelines and temperature rising of water pumps, increases along with the decline of part-load ratio.