Feasibility of CHP-plants with thermal stores in the German spot market

The European Energy Exchange (EEX) day ahead spot market for electricity in Germany shows significant variations in prices between peak and off-peak hours. Being able to shift electricity production from off-peak hours to peak hours improves the profit from CHP-plant operation significantly. Installing a big thermal store at a CHP-plant makes it possible to shift production of electricity and heat to hours where electricity prices are highest especially on days with low heat demand. Consequently, these conditions will have to influence the design of new CHP-plants. In this paper, the optimal size of a CHP-plant with thermal store under German spot market conditions is analyzed. As an example the possibility to install small size CHP-plant instead of only boilers at a Stadtwerke delivering 30,000 MW h-heat for district heating per year is examined using the software energyPRO. It is shown that, given the economic and technical assumptions made, a CHP-plant of 4 MW-el with a thermal store participating in the spot market will be the most feasible plant to build. A sensitivity analysis shows to which extent the optimal solution will vary by changing the key economic assumptions.