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Demand response (DR) can compensate for imbalances in variable renewable energy supplies. This possibility is particularly interesting for electrochemical processes, due to their high energy intensity. To determine the technical feasibility and economic viability of DR, we chose the chlor-alkali process with subsequent polyvinyl chloride production, including intermediate storage for ethylene dichloride. We estimate the maximum possible cost savings of implementing load flexibility measures. A process model is set up to determine the system characteristic. Subsequent optimizations result in the facility's best possible dispatch depending on additional and minimum power load, storage volume, and cost of a load change. Real plant data are used to specify model parameters and validate the system characteristic and the plant dispatch. An economic evaluation reveals the economic advantages of efficiency and flexibility. The approach can be used to analyze the DR potential of other chlorine value chains or facilities with high electricity demand in general.

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Combined heat and power (CHP) plants are efficient regarding fuel, costs, and emissions compared to the separate generation of heat and electricity. Sinking revenues from sales of electricity due to sinking market prices endanger the economically viable operation of the plants. The integration of heat pumps (HP) and thermal energy storages (TESs) represents an option to increase the flexibility of CHP plants so that electricity can be produced only when the market conditions are favorable. The investigated district heating system is located in Germany, where the electricity market is influenced by a high share of renewable energies. The price-based unit-commitment and dispatch problem is modeled as a mixed integer linear program (MILP) with a temporal resolution of 1 h and a planning horizon of 1 yr. This paper presents the optimal operation of a TES unit and a HP in combination with CHP plants as well as synergies or competitions between them. Coal and gas-fired CHP plants with back pressure or extraction condensing steam turbines (STs) are considered, and their results are compared to each other.

Reduced models of combined heat and power plants are required for different applications. Among other usages, they are implemented as mixed integer linear programs (MILP) in energy market models or price-based unit commitment problems to study the economic feasibility and optimal operation strategies of different units. Generic models are particularly useful when limited information is available for each considered plant. This paper presents a MILP modeling approach for combined heat and power (CHP) plants. The approach is based on energy and exergy balances and a few typical plant characteristics for different operating conditions. The reduction of electrical power output due to heat extraction is estimated by the transferred exergy to the district heating network. Furthermore, the accuracy, strengths and limitations of this approach are investigated for various CHP plant types with extraction condensing turbines designed for district heating systems. Therefore, detailed thermodynamic cycle simulations of CHP plants including part load operations are used to obtain the real plant operating conditions to compare them to the results of the described generic approach. The validation of the reduced, generic model shows that the accuracy mainly depends on the effectiveness of the heat extraction from the CHP plant. In addition, it can be seen that the main advantage of the presented exergy-based method is the inherent consideration of the feed flow temperature for the calculation of the power reduction due to heat extraction.