Thermodynamic performance analysis, assessment and comparison of an advanced trigenerative compressed air energy storage system under different operation strategies

Abstract Trigenerative compressed air energy storage (T-CAES) system, placed to energy demand, can supply power, heat and cooling load to users simultaneously. In order to improve the performance of T-CAES system, an advanced T-CAES system is proposed in this paper, in which a burner is added before turbine to further heat turbine inlet air. In order to cope with the variation of energy demand, three operation strategies of turbine considering off-design condition is presented to control output power of the T-CAES system: turbine inlet mass flow rate of air control (TIM), turbine inlet pressure control (TIP) and turbine inlet temperature control (TIT). Thermodynamic performance analysis in design condition of the proposed T-CAES system has been carried out, and off-design performance analysis and comparison of the T-CAES system under different operation strategies have been investigated. Comparing with conventional T-CAES, the total consumed power of the proposed T-CAES system is a 495.0 kW decrease, and the power efficiency improves 1.2%. The turbine output power and assessment indicators should be both taken account to determine the best choice of operation strategy. This research may provide a guide line for system integration and operation strategy of T-CAES system under off-design condition to improve thermodynamic performance.