Placement and sizing of Combined Heat and Power systems considering cost/benefit analysis

This paper presents a cost/worth analysis approach for optimal placement and sizing of Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) as a powerful optimization technique, is employed for optimization. Different benefits brought up by CHP systems are taken into account as a multi-objective decision making. Economic factors such as power and heat selling, reliability improvement, loss reduction, deferred upgrading investment and CHP costs are considered in this study. This paper conducts two separate case studies, 6-bus meshed test system and 14-bus radial test system to demonstrate economic feasibility for investment planning when cost and CHP benefits are taken into account. The impacts of considering different parameters such as the rate of load growth and interest are studied. Results indicate that the proposed methodology is capable of finding the best location and the optimal size of CHP that can cause improvement in network operation along with financial benefits.