Economic Valuation of Low-Load Operation with Auxiliary Firing of Coal-Fired Units

Gang Wang, Daihai You, Suhua Lou, Zhe Zhang and Li Dai
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Gang Wang: State Key Laboratory of Advanced Electromagnetic Engineering and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, No.1037, Luoyu Road, 430074 Wuhan, China
Daihai You: State Key Laboratory of Advanced Electromagnetic Engineering and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, No.1037, Luoyu Road, 430074 Wuhan, China
Suhua Lou: State Key Laboratory of Advanced Electromagnetic Engineering and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, No.1037, Luoyu Road, 430074 Wuhan, China
Zhe Zhang: State Key Laboratory of Advanced Electromagnetic Engineering and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, No.1037, Luoyu Road, 430074 Wuhan, China
Li Dai: State Key Laboratory of Advanced Electromagnetic Engineering and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, No.1037, Luoyu Road, 430074 Wuhan, China

Energies, 2017, vol. 10, issue 9, 1-20

Abstract: It is often claimed that coal-fired units are highly inflexible to accommodate variable renewable energy. However, a recently published report illustrates that making existing coal-fired units more flexible is both technically and economically feasible. Auxiliary firing is an effective and promising measure for coal-fired units to reduce their minimum loads and thus augment their flexibility. To implement the economic valuation of low-load operation with auxiliary firing (LLOAF) of coal-fired units, we improve the traditional fuel cost model to express the operating costs of LLOAF and present the economic criterion and economic index to assess the economics of LLOAF for a single coal-fired unit. Moreover, we investigate the economic value of LLOAF in the power system operation via day-ahead unit commitment problem and analyze the impacts on the scheduling results from unit commitment policies and from extra auxiliary fuel costs. Numerical simulations show that with the reduction of the extra auxiliary fuel costs LLOAF of coal-fired units can remarkably decrease the total operating costs of the power system. Some further conclusions are finally drawn.

Keywords: low-load operation with auxiliary firing (LLOAF); fuel cost model considering LLOAF; economic criterion for LLOAF; unit commitment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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