Emission reduction constrained optimal strategy for refrigeration field: A case study of Ningbo in China

Abstract

With rising demand of refrigeration, the percentage of electricity consumed in refrigeration field keeps growing in the whole society. Meanwhile, environmental issues including climate warming and ozone layer depletion partially caused by emissions from electricity generation sources are becoming major challenges. In view of this fact, it is of great practical significance to promote emission reduction in the refrigeration field. Therefore, this study considers Ningbo in China as a case study to analyze emission reduction-oriented configuration schemes in refrigeration field. Initially, generation resources and energy consumption in Ningbo are examined. As a big coastal port city, Ningbo has a large proportion of secondary and tertiary industries, which consume a huge amount of refrigeration demand. Additionally, in this city, electric air-conditioning is also mainly used for refrigeration. On the other hand, due to favorable environment, Ningbo is suitable for distributed photovoltaic (PV) installation, providing a promising alternative solution for electricity supply in refrigerate field. Moreover, three typical application scenarios of refrigeration in Ningbo are selected and compared, comprising cold store, shopping mall and office building. In these scenarios, possible configuration schemes are presented by installing additional devices including distributed PV generation and energy storage. Afterwards, to optimize the capacity of these devices, a mixed-integer linear programming model is established aiming at minimizing the total investment and operation cost, along with emission in the refrigeration demand. Case study analysis of realistic refrigeration scenarios in Ningbo shows that, proper configuration of distributed PV and multi-type energy storage serve as an effective solution to cost-saving and emission reduction in refrigeration fields. These results provide referential experience for emission reduction and future city development with increasing refrigeration demand.