Simulation of integrated solar combined cycle coupled with cooling energy production

The paper deals with the modeling of a Solarized Combined Cooling and Power (SCCP) plant including a combined cycle based on a 46 MW Siemens SGT-800 gas turbine, a Parabolic Trough Collectors (PTC) solar field and double-effect steam driven absorption chillers feeding a district cooling network. Commercial software and in-house computer codes were combined together to predict SCCP plant performance under real operating conditions. The developed modeling procedure was applied to accurately simulate plant operation on an hourly basis for typical winter and summer days. Off-design behavior of all plant components was taken into account in order to get the real plant performance. The system was designed to operate in “island mode” to match both electrical and cooling demand with high flexibility. During the day the solar source has the highest priority, whilst the gas turbine (GT) is operated at part-load to follow the load profile. Efficiency and fuel savings for the SCCP plant are computed and compared against the ones resulting from a conventional pure fossil system based on a combined cycle and compression refrigeration units. Results showed that a SCCP system can provide fossil fuel savings of 33% in a typical summer day and 26% in a winter day.