Optimal weekly usage of cryogenic energy storage in an open retail electricity market

In this paper, the concept of weekly usage of Cryogenic Energy Storage (CES) to shift the electrical energy from lower prices during off-peak periods to higher prices during peak periods as compared to common daily usage is introduced. Two equally-expensive CESs are optimally sized for daily and weekly usage. An optimal dispatch algorithm is developed by formulating a mixed integer linear program (MILP) problem to determine the CES charging and discharging power set-points in an open retail electricity market based on online and forecasted electricity price. GLPK package is employed to solve the optimization problem. The economic benefits of both CES weekly and daily usages are presented and compared for different price profiles and round-trip efficiencies of the storage. The results reveal significant benefits of weekly usage of the CES as compared to daily usage.