Assessing and optimizing the economic and environmental impacts of Tcogeneration/district energy systems using an energy equilibrium model

Energy equilibrium models can be valuable aids in energy planning and decision-Amaking. In such models, supply is represented by a cost-minimizing linear Asubmodel and demand by a smooth vector-valued function of prices. In this Apaper, we use the energy equilibrium model to study conventional systems and Acogeneration-based district energy (DE) systems for providing heating, cooling Aand electrical services, not only to assess the potential economic and environmental benefits of cogeneration-based DE systems, but also to develop Aoptimal configurations while accounting for such factors as economics and Aenvironmental impact. The energy equilibrium model is formulated and solved Awith software called WATEMS, which uses sequential non-linear programming to Acalculate the intertemporal equilibrium of energy supplies and demands. The Amethods of analysis and evaluation for the economic and environmental impacts Aare carefully explored. An illustrative energy equilibrium model of Aconventional and cogeneration-based DE systems is developed within WATEMS to Acompare quantitatively the economic and environmental impacts of those systems Afor various scenarios. (c) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.