Thermodynamic analysis of an integrated energy system based on compressed air energy storage (CAES) system and Kalina cycle

• An integrated energy system based on CAES and Kalina cycle is proposed.
• The design and modeling of the CAES–KCS6 system are laid out.
• The energy analysis and exergy analysis of the proposed system are carried out.
• A parametric analysis is conducted to examine their effect on system performance.

High penetration of renewable power sources into power system leads to significant challenge in balancing of power generation and consumption due to the highly erratic nature of renewable energies. Integrating the energy storage system (ESS) with power system can weaken these negative effects effectively. Compressed air energy storage (CAES) system as one of the grid-scale ESS technologies has grown rapidly in the past few years. However, the temperature of exhaust from low pressure turbine during discharge process is still high enough to utilize. An integrated energy system consisting of a CAES system and a Kalina cycle system 6 (KCS6) is proposed to recover this waste heat. The thermodynamic analyses including energy analysis and exergy analysis are evaluated by using steady-state mathematical model and thermodynamic laws. The second law efficiency of the proposed CAES–KCS6 system can be improved nearly 4% compared to that of the single conventional CAES system. Meanwhile, the parametric analysis is also carried out to evaluate the effects of some key parameters on system performance, such as the turbine inlet temperature (TIT), inlet pressure of low pressure turbine and the air storage cavern temperature. Results show that all of these parameters have positive effect on system exergy efficiency.