Gas District Cooling Research Articles

Breakeven analysis of Thermal Energy Storage System under uncertain operating conditions

Since thermal energy storage (TES) systems gained momentum in the global energy market, there is a greater demand to enhance their energy efficiency and, more significantly, lower their costs. The purpose of the study is to assist decision-making under uncertainty and risk associated with stochastic increases in cost connected with Thermal Energy Storage System operation. The Thermal Energy Storage System (TSS) at the Gas District Cooling Plant in Perak, Malaysia is the purpose of this research. When fluctuating cooling demands develop, the Thermal Energy Storage System (TSS) is used to transfer energy use from peak to off-peak hours. For TSS and Gas District Cooling (GDC) systems, electric chillers and thermal storage tanks are required. Thermal energy systems (TES) play a role in the ongoing process of increasing integration across diverse energy systems to achieve a cleaner, more flexible, and long-term use of energy resources. Break-even analysis was used in the study, which is a basic tool for analyzing the feasibility of real-world initiatives with uncertainty. The findings reveal that a single-shift operation is not feasible, and the project will require at least two shifts to be viable.

Optimizing Energy Efficiency: An Integrated Life Cycle Costing Approach for Centralized Cooling Plants

Gas District Cooling (GDC) is an emerging technology utilizing natural gas-based systems for efficient district-scale cooling. This study develops a comprehensive Life Cycle Costing (LCC) model integrating capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operational expenditure (OPEX) for Thermal Energy Storage (TES) and Electrical Chillers (ECs) within GDC plants. Validated through a case study at an academic institute's GDC plant in Malaysia, the model assesses breakeven scenarios, revealing that project feasibility is optimal under case-II conditions, emphasizing the importance of operational efficiency for sustained economic viability throughout the plant's lifespan. These insights enhance understanding of financial considerations and investment strategies for adopting GDC technology in urban cooling applications, highlighting the need for strategic planning and lifecycle management to optimize economic performance and support broader sustainable development goals. Ongoing research will further refine LCC models, advancing the economic competitiveness of GDC as a key component of sustainable urban cooling solutions.

Analysis of a Thermal Energy Storage Tank in a Large District Cooling System: A Case Study

This study’s primary goal is to evaluate the performance of a large thermal energy storage tank installed in a Gas District Cooling (GDC) plant. The performance parameters considered in this study include thermocline thickness (WTc), Cumulated Charge (Qcum), and Half Figure of Merit (½ FOM). The operation sensor data of a large Thermal Energy Storage (TES) tank was acquired for this analysis. The recorded temperature sensor from the 1st to 7th January and from 12th to 17th October 2019 was considered in this research. GraphPad prism computer software was deployed for analyses, and the temperature distribution data were analyzed to determine the four temperature parameters (hot water temperature (Th), cool water temperature (Tc), cool water depth (C), and slope gradient (S)) using a non-linear regression curve fitting technique and sigmoid Dose Responses function as integrated with the software. At the end of this research, the relationship between the growth of the determined performance parameter with charging hours was analyzed and presented. The research results proved the ability of GraphPad Prism software to assess the temperature distribution in the TES tank and also the corresponding effects on the overall Tank performance. The software offers better advantages in evaluating the performance parameter of the TES tank accurately.

Exergy and Regression Analysis for Optimization of Electric Chillers at a Gas District Cooling Plant

Exergy and Regression Analysis for Optimization of Electric Chillers at a Gas District Cooling Plant

Integrating Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Model for Selection of Centralized Chilled Water Generation — Review Paper

This paper presents a review of literature relating to Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) in Gas District Cooling plant. The gas district cooling plant uses either vapour compression process or absorption process for the chilled water generation. Both processes have impacts on the economic aspects as well as the contribution to CO 2 emissions; thus, integration of the cost and environmental analysis of both processes are necessary. An extensive body of literature exists on both subjects, however, there is very limited number of available literature on the integration of LCC and LCA. The purpose of this review is to find the most suitable optimization model which can integrate the LCC and LCA to provide the best decision in choosing the most cost-effective and environment-friendly system. This review assesses the literature from thirty-four journals, research papers, and case reports from the year 1995 to 2017. The result of this review shows that the goal programming methodology is the appropriate method for integrating LCC and LCA because it provides the optimal decision in choosing the most cost-effective, environment-friendly system for the chilled water generation.

Cooling-Efficient Job Scheduling in a Heterogeneous Grid Environment

Electricity consumption typically forms the biggest portion of a Data Centre's operational cost, with the biggest consumers, in roughly equal proportion, being the servers and the cooling units. In an effort to reduce electricity consumption, in this paper, we propose a grid scheduling algorithm that takes advantage of a prior Gas-District Cooling Data Centre model to reduce the cooling energy consumption. The scheduling algorithm is an extension of a prior version that has been shown to perform with competitive average turnaround time, waiting time and maximum tardiness in heterogeneous grid environments. Experimental analysis shows that the proposed method was able to reduce cooling electricity consumption by 20%. Further, by increasing the maximum allowable temperature by 1 degree, the proposed method was able to save an additional 3%.

Toward an architecture for integrated gas district cooling with data center control to reduce CO2 emission

Gas District Cooling (GDC) provides electricity and chilled water to facilities with relatively low running cost and has the potential to reduce CO2 emission as it can make effective use of wasted energy. However, the present CO2 emission tends to be higher than expected due to the chilled water supply–demand gap. To efficiently manage the gap, this paper introduces a novel chilled water supply–demand gap model and proposes an integrated GDC and Data Center (DC) control based on the model. The gap model, defined by GDC plant and DC controllable parameters, estimates the required additional chilled water supply. Then, DC and chillers in the plant are controlled based on the model to minimize the required additional supply. The analysis using GDC operational data in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS shows that the accuracy of the models depends on temperature differences between rooms and outdoor, and Steam Absorption Chillers (SAC) operations. Thus, the analysis suggests that the incorporation of room and outdoor temperature sensors in the DC, and the proper scheduling of SAC operation can improve the accuracy of the models. The improved accuracy will in turn allows the GDC operation to be better optimized, resulting in a reduced CO2 emission.

Performance Analysis of Absorption and Electric Chillers at a Gas District Cooling Plant

Performance Analysis of Absorption and Electric Chillers at a Gas District Cooling Plant