Techno-economic comparison of different energy storage configurations for renewable energy combined cooling heating and power system

Amidst the growing imperative to address carbon emissions, renewable energy combined cooling heating and power (RCCHP) systems have emerged as a transformative alternative to their fossil fuel-driven counterparts. Given the intermittent and volatile nature of renewable energy, the integration of energy storage technology has taken center stage in the exploration of RCCHP systems. This paper presents a quantitative techno-economic assessment of seven prominent energy storage configurations, including battery (BAT), thermal energy storage (TES), hydrogen storage (HS), and their combinations within the context of RCCHP systems. To avoid potential deviations caused by the rule-based energy dispatch strategy, the optimization problem is solved by a deterministic tool named mixed integer linear programming (MILP). Meanwhile, an accuracy assessment is performed on various time series aggregation methods to ensure the reliability of optimization outcomes. The key results revealed that the optimal storage configuration varies with different self-sufficiency rate (SSR) requirements. The BAT+HS+TES emerges as the most cost-effective configuration to implement 100% SSR requirements. The annualized total cost (ATC) of BAT+HS+TES configuration is 11% - 39.5% lower than other single or combined energy storage configurations. In addition, HS stands as a more economical technology for countering the off-grid effect than BAT or TES. The underestimated ATC for the RCCHP system enlarges with escalating SSR requirements when using inappropriate aggregation methods. The maximum underestimation of ATC reaches -34.8% under the 100% SSR requirement when only using one typical day from each season.