A technique for determining a relationship between the prices of heat and electricity generated by CHP

A technique was developed to optimize operations of a combined heat and power (CHP) plant taking into account changes in thermal loads. The technique is based on determining the relationship between changes in the price of electricity and changes in the price of heat. The price range is determined, on the basis of which the Pareto-optimal set of decisions is built. This set of solutions helps to find options for technical solutions that ensure the competitiveness of CHP plant relative to single-product heat and power generating plants and the most effective option to choose. It is required to solve three optimization problems to construct a Pareto-optimal set of solutions: the problem of minimizing the price of electricity for a given heat price and the rate of return on investment, the problem of minimizing the energy price to determine the maximum heat price, and the problem of minimizing the exergy price to find the minimum boundary of the heat price range. The technique was tested on the example of a cogeneration gas turbine plant. The cogeneration gas turbine plant has a waste-heat boiler and a contact heat exchanger for heating the make-up network water. The heat price range for the investigated a cogeneration gas turbine plant has been determined. Optimization studies of the operating modes of a cogeneration gas turbine plant were carried out in this range with a certain step. The results obtained can be used to select the optimal technical solutions, select the optimal combination of circuit-parametric solutions that ensure the competitiveness of the products of a cogeneration gas turbine plant.