Operation strategies and performance of air-conditioning systems with thermal energy storages in power systems

Energy storage is one of the most effective measures to overcome the challenges from the massive integration of renewable energy sources (RESs) with high uncertainty. However, there still lacks inexpensive and feasible choices of energy storage for power systems. In this paper, a promising measure of energy storage, namely air-conditioning systems with thermal energy storage, is studied. Different operation strategies are proposed for this type of storage system considering the characteristics and needs of power systems, and the objective of the strategies includes cost minimization, load shifting and providing frequency regulation capacity. Simulation results demonstrate the feasibility and advantage of the storage system, and illustrate the performance of different operation strategies.