Optimal Scheduling of Integrated Electricity and District Cooling Systems with Ice Storage

Optimal scheduling of multi-energy flow is one of the key technology to improve the operation efficiency of integrated energy systems. At present, most of the researches on integrated energy systems focus on the combined heat and power dispatch, while there are few researches on the optimal dispatch of integrated electricity and district cooling system. The optimal dispatch of integrated electricity and district cooling system can realize the complementary characteristics of power system and cooling system, which can not only shift peaks and fill valleys, but also improve the efficiency of existing power systems and reduce operating costs. In this paper, we propose an optimal dispatch strategy based on the interior point method to optimize the operation of integrated electricity and district cooling systems with ice storage that meets both the cooling and electric power load demand. After solving the model, the cooling capacity of the ice storage tanks and electric chillers can be optimally allocated to reduce the daily operating cost of the entire cooling system. The simulation results are discussed for a test system to demonstrate the potential benefits of the proposed strategy in terms of operation economics.