A software tool for the optimal planning and the economic evaluation of residential cogeneration districts

We present a decision support procedure for the configuration of distributed generation systems in residential districts, where various types of energy demands (electrical load, high and medium temperature thermal load, cooling load) have to be served. In the configuration process alternative solutions have to be compared, both from a technical and an economical point of view, taking into account the energy consumption profiles that vary along the day and along the year, due to the weather conditions. The decision support procedure consists of two steps. In the first step, by solving a mixed integer linear programming model, the annual optimal dispatch of the distributed generation system is determined with a hourly discretization, taking into account technical constraints, load profiles and fuel costs. The optimal dispatch is then used for the economic evaluation of the investment, taking into account prices of commodities, taxation and financial aspects (debt/equity). The decision support procedure allows to compare different alternative plant configurations; it can also be used as a simulation tool, for assessing the system sensitivity to variations of parameter values.