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

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 mixedenergy 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 enduser 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 (c) E-OPT, allows for simultaneously solving problems of master-planning and optimized operations with short computational time. The (c) E-OPT novelty features rely on advanced performance maps modelling approach based on the extensive (c) E-OPT database of commercially available components. The (c) 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 (c) 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.