Optimal Planning and Economic Evaluation of Small Scale Cogeneration System

Cogeneration plants, which simultaneously produce electricity and heat energy have been introduced increasingly for commercial and domestic applications in Korea because of their energy efficiency. The optimal plant configuration of a specific commercial building can be determined by selecting the size and the number of cogeneration systems, auxiliary equipment based on the annual demands of electricity, heating and cooling. In this study, a mixed-integer, linear programming, utilizing the branch and bound algorithm was used to obtain optimal solution. Both the optimal configuration system equipment and the optimal operational mode were determined based on the annual cost method for installation of a cogeneration system to a hospital and a group of apartments in Seoul, Korea. In addition, the economic evaluation for the optimal cogeneration system depending on the fuel tariff system was calculated. A short payback period and a high internal rate of return on the initial investment were found to be essential for the adoption of cogeneration plants to hospitals and apartments.