A systematic approach to evaluate the economic viability of Combined Cooling Heating and Power systems over conventional technologies

This paper presents an analytical methodology of evaluating the economic viability of a CCHP system, over three alternative configurations: (1) boiler and electric chiller, which have been extendedly analyzed in literature, (2) boiler and gas driven absorption chiller and (3) reversible heat pump, which have been slightly investigated in comparison with CCHP systems. An adjusted Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) is defined for those cases and used as a decision-making criterion. A sensitivity analysis is carried out to explore the effect of technical and economic data and load characteristics on the LCOE. The viability of the CCHP system is determined by comparing the LCOE with the electricity market prices. Two different economic viability problems are considered: (1) investing viability for new CCHP systems, and (2) operating viability for existing CCHP systems. The results demonstrate interesting interactions and encouraging perspectives, especially when CCHP system is used in combination with conventional technologies like boilers and chillers.