MODELLING AND OPTIMIZATION OF A MICRO COMBINED HEAT AND POWER PLANT

Most electrical power in developed countries today is produced by large centralized power plants. With the technology progress, micro combined heat and power generators (ranging from 1 to 10 kW) are becoming available. Tomorrow, they will produce electricity and heat at home, locally. This paper presents a method of handling these new kind of power plants. The solution based on dynamic programming schedules the use of the micro CHP and of the hot water tank in order to minimize the operating costs. An on-line implementation of the algorithm is proposed and tested on a validation model.