Conference Paper
Proceedings of SimBuild Conference 2024
Computationally Efficient and Accurate Modeling of Combined Heat and Power Systems for District Energy Systems
Computationally Efficient and Accurate Modeling of Combined Heat and Power Systems for District Energy Systems
Zhanwei He 1, Saranya Anbarasu 1, Kathryn Hinkelman 1, Jianjun Hu 2, Wangda Zuo 1, Ardeshir Moftakhari 11 The Pennsylvania State University, United States of America 2 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, United States of AmericaAbstract: Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems utilize fuel for on-site electricity generation while recovering waste heat to provide steam for heating. To achieve computational efficiency with minimum impacts on accuracy compared to the techno-economic and physical modeling approaches that dominate today, this study proposes, demonstrates, and evaluates a simplified physics-based CHP model for district energy application in the Modelica language. First, the model formulations are detailed, including the physical equations for topping and bottoming cycles. Then, the models are demonstrated and validated using manufacturing reference data and established models. The steady-state simulation results show errors within a range of ±0.01% to ±8%. The transient behaviors of a simple steam drum level control are compared and validated against the ThermoPower Library model. This comparison finds that the proposed model achieves a simulation speed enhancement of approximately 100 times while maintaining a coefficient of the variation of the root mean square error of 8%. The results have demonstrated that this simplified CHP model can achieve good accuracy with computational efficiency. Keywords: Combined heat and power, Modelica ModelingPages: 341 - 351 Paper: