Optimal energy management of a group of air source heat pumps in a low-carbon industrial park considering its cold island effect

Abstract

This paper proposes an optimal energy management method for a group of air source heat pumps (ASHPs) in a low-carbon industrial park while considering the cold island effect of the ASHPs. The low-carbon industrial park is a real case in Binhai New District, Tianjin, China where 14 factories are based in. The heating loads of the 14 factories are satisfied by a group of ASHPs that are powered by distributed photovoltaic (PV) generations to reduce the carbon emissions of the whole industrial park. First, an optimal scheduling model for the operation of the group of the ASHPs considering the cold island effect is developed. The unit commitment of the ASHPs within the group is optimized while considering the operational constraints of each ASHP unit. Furthermore, the cold island effect of all the ASHPs is considered as a constraint to avoid the influence of the cold island effect as far as possible and thus keep the ASHPs in their efficient states. Then, the resistance-capacitance (RC) network is used to model the thermal dynamics of the factory buildings in the park. The thermal inertia and the schedules of the employee's working hours are also considered to explore the flexibility of the factory buildings. Finally, the operator of the industrial park can actively control the group of ASHP units to reduce the heating costs and meet the comfort requirements of the factory buildings. Numerical studies show that the proposed strategy can help to reduce the heating costs, improve the efficiency of the ASHP and reduce the carbon emissions as well for the low-carbon industrial park.