The adoption of a planning tool software platform for optimized polygeneration design and operation – A district cooling application in South-East Asia

Highlights: • District Cooling systems coupled with Polygeneration power plant. • 12% Primary Energy Savings thanks to polygeneration layout. • Novel Optimization Strategy based on hybrid algorithms. • ©E-OPT software platform for master-planning and operations. • 30% CAPEX, 12% OPEX savings 15 %CO2 emissions reduction for novel design. Distributed multi-energy systems based on polygeneration, when compared with the traditional power plants, show significant primary energy savings and CO₂ emissions reduction due to the high integration of mixed-energy sources and increased penetration of renewable energy sources. The high integration of these systems requires optimized master-planning and operating strategies for dealing with significant variability in the end-user demands (electricity, heating and cooling), with the intermittency of renewable energy source availability and integration of energy storage technologies for peak shaving operation. Many optimization variables characterize master-planning and optimal dispatch problems, and advanced algorithms are adopted to solve the calculations. In the paper, a new developed energy optimal planning software platform, the ©E-OPT, allows for simultaneously solving problems of master-planning and optimized operations with short computational time. The ©E-OPT novelty features rely on advanced performance maps modelling approach based on the extensive ©E-OPT database of commercially available components. The ©E-OPT software platform capabilities have been validated in a real case study in Singapore, allowing for the complete retrofitting of polygeneration systems in a district cooling arrangement in an industrial estate. In comparison with the design proposed by a well-established consulting firm, after having performed the validation step, the ©E-OPT software platform shows up to −30% in capital investment during the master-planning phase, and up to 12% in primary energy savings and 15% the CO2 pollutant emissions reduction, thanks to the optimized dispatch strategy.