Volume 9: Sustainable Energy Solutions for Changing the World: Part I

Dynamic simulation of an HP-ORC-Heat Storage pilot plant for an economic evaluation and necessary cost reduction Scharrer D., Bazan P., German R.

Abstract

A novel pumped thermal energy storage (PTES) system with a heat pump (HP) and an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) is built and investigated at the Energie Campus Nürnberg, Germany. The basic idea is that surplus electricity available during the day is converted into heat with the HP and stored in a sensible hot water thermal storage. This enables a shift of e.g. photovoltaic electricity from day to night, as the stored heat can be converted back into electricity with the ORC at night. In order to examine the economic efficiency of the system, a dynamic simulation was set up using the AnyLogic simulation software. For a small community of 40 houses, it was shown that under current german market conditions, no economic use is possible without a significant cost reduction of the PTES. However, taking into account current trends in the development of feed-in tariffs in Germany, an economic use will be possible within the next few years.

Keywords energy storage, carnot battery, pumped thermal energy storage, dynamic simulation, economic evaluation