A Novel Steady-State Simulation Approach for a Combined Electric and Steam System Considering Steam Condensate Loss

Abstract

Steam is commonly used for heating in industrial production and transmitted through the steam network. Along with the decarbonization of energy generation and utilization, electric boiler and combined heat and power (CHP) became the alternatives for steam generation. Thus, the steam network is becoming tightly coupled with the power system, which brings new challenges in the simulation and operation of the combined electric and steam system (CESS). A novel simulation approach for CESS that can balance both the simulation accuracy and speed is proposed. Piecewise linearization of the saturated steam property is used for model simplification, which accelerates the simulation speed while ensuring the accuracy. Meanwhile, the heat loss of the steam network takes both condensate loss and heat dissipation into account, which further improves the accuracy of heat loss calculation. In view of model solving, two computation frameworks are provided for back-pressure and extraction condensing the CHP units, respectively. The accuracy and efficiency of the steam heating network model is verified through both the tree and ring steam network. In addition, a CESS case with both CHP and electric boilers is presented, and the results indicate such a system can reasonably improve the system stability and renewable energy consumption capability.