ORMMES’06 Advanced integrated energy systems

ABSTRACT. Advanced energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies can simultaneously improve the private interest performance and the public interest outcomes of municipal energy systems. Private interest performance normally concerns the cost and reliability of energy-services provision, whereas public interest outcomes cover the need to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and reduce dependence on peaking or otherwise insecure fuel stocks. Fuel-cells, wind turbines, and solar thermal collectors with seasonal heat storage belong to a suite of advanced technologies that can markedly decrease the environmental impact of municipal systems, albeit sometimes at higher cost to the operator than conventional technologies. Earlier studies using the dynamic energy, emissions, and cost optimization model deeco showed that some combinations of renewable energy and rational use of energy technologies are prone to less-than-additive performance in terms of displacing greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel usage. The successful integration of innovative technologies therefore requires the use of simulation techniques that can capture the dynamic interactions between the various central, district, and local measures under consideration. deeco supports highly disaggregated topological, temporal, and spatial modeling and is designed to reveal these interactions. This paper investigates optimally integrated municipal energy schemes containing some or all of the aforementioned technologies. Greenhouse gas emissions reductions of about 75 % relative to conventional facilities can be achieved. But counteraction effects between the fuel-cells in cogeneration mode and renewable heat from the solar thermal collectors mean that deep reductions are only possible when renewable power from wind turbines is also provided