The high penetration level of intermittent renewable power necessitates the crucial requirement for combined heat and power systems to possess both high efficiency and flexibility. However, the heat-controlled operation modes of traditional combined heat and power systems impose limitations on their efficiency and flexibility. Therefore, it is of great significance to develop a heat-power decoupling technology that exhibits exceptional efficiency and flexibility. A novel combined heat and power system integrated with multi-grade thermal energy storage is proposed in this study. Thermodynamic analysis models of all operational conditions are developed, and the comprehensive characteristics of efficiency and operational flexibility for the proposed system are assessed by taking a 330 MW system as an example. Results show that the proposed system can decrease/increase 16.05 MW/30.96 MW power loads comparing with the reference system during the charging/discharging periods under the design condition. Energy efficiency of the proposed system can reach 49.40 %, which is improved by 1.66 percentage points. Exergy analysis reveals the exergy destruction order for the proposed system, and shows that the combustion and heat transfer in the boiler are the major process of exergy dissipation. Moreover, operation strategies of the proposed system during charging-discharging cycle are explored and formulated under off-design condition, suggesting that thermodynamic performances of the novel system under various conditions even extreme conditions exhibits exceptional properties. The maximum heat load of the proposed system can be improved by 46.78 % comparing with the reference system, and the maximum improvement of power load capacity during charging-discharging cycle is 14.58 percentage points. This study provides a promising approach for multi-grade thermal energy storage to improve the comprehensive characteristics of combined heat and power systems.
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