Operational cost and wind power integration capacities of the integrated heat and power dispatch (IHPD) system under different heating regulation modes and time steps

The utilization of the district heating system (DHS) thermal inertia is greatly influenced by heating regulation modes and time steps, however, which has been rarely analysed in almost all integrated heat and power dispatch system (IHPD) models, for the purpose of wind power integration. In this study, an IHPD model considering the thermal inertia of the DHS was established, in which a data interaction problem amongst the power sources, heat sources and district heating networks was solved. Thereafter, four most commonly used heating operation modes and different heating regulation time steps were applied to the IHPD model, respectively, to analyse and compare their effects on the IHPD system under different operation conditions, mainly considering the operation cost and the wind power integration. Results of the case studies showed that the variable flow and variable supply temperature mode produced the lowest operation cost of the IHPD system during a whole heating season. Consequently, this mode is recommended to be applied in the optimization operation of the IHPD system with the wind power integration. Meanwhile, a heating regulation time step within 3 h could make full use of the DHS thermal inertia, thus to improve the operational flexibility of the IHPD system.