NETWORK DESIGN FOR MULTIPLE ENERGY GENERATION FACILITIES

Simultaneous generation of three energy type (electricity, heating and cooling) from the same source is referred as CCHP or trigeneration. A well- designed trigeneration system is more efficient (approximately 80%) than a conventional one. These are the most appropriate and efficient energy systems especially for public areas as hospitals, shopping centers, hotels also populated settlements as campuses, schools, satellite cities where both electricity, thermal and cool energy are needed. In this study, set covering model is integrated into fixed charge location problem for assignment of co/trigeneration facilities to customers, depending on the type of their energy requirement. Customer demands, potential facility capacities and distances between points are considered to determine the location, type and size of co/trigeneration facilities. As the other characteristic feature of the study, we focused on the minimization of initial investment and transportation costs by optimal network design techniques and avoided going into details about technical specifications of the generation stations.