The combined cooling, heating and power (CCHP) system is a promising energy-efficient technology to realize energy cascade utilization. With the integration of photovoltaic/thermal panels and thermal energy storage, the comprehensive performance of the system can be further improved. However, the performance is also affected by the operation strategy. This paper proposes an effective operation strategy to deal with the energy flow of the system well to achieve a better performance. The mathematical model of a CCHP system hybridized with photovoltaic/thermal panels and thermal energy storage is established in this paper. The optimal size of key components of the CCHP system is determined by the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. Case studies of four scenarios of a residential zone in Beijing are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the system structure and efficiency of the proposed method. The results show that by adding photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) panels and thermal energy storage, the economic and energetic benefits can be effectively improved and the proposed operation strategy is effective.

The regional energy system (RES) is a system that consumes multiple forms of energy in the region and achieves coordinated and efficient utilization of energy resources. The RES is composed of multiple micro energy systems (MESs); however, due to the mismatch of energy resources and different energy consumption within each MES, a large amount of clean energy is wasted, and each MES has to acquire extra energy. This significantly increases operation costs and contributes to environmental pollution. One of the promising ways to solve this problem is to deploy an energy storage system in the RES, which can make use of its advantages to transfer energy in space-time and fulfill the demand for loads in different periods, and conduct unified energy management for each MES in the RES. Nevertheless, a large number of users are deterred by the high investment in energy storage devices. A shared energy storage system (SESS) can allow multi-MESs to share one energy storage system, and meet the energy storage needs of different systems, to reduce the capital investment of energy storage systems and realize efficient consumption of clean energy. Taking multiple MESs as the object, this paper proposes a model and collaborative optimal strategy of energy management for the RES to accomplish high utilization of clean energy, environmental friendliness, and economy. First, the paper analyzes the internal energy supply characteristics of the RES and develops a model of the RES with an SESS. Then, the paper poses the management concept of load integration and unified energy distribution by using the operational information of each subsystem. An optimal operation strategy is established to minimize daily operation costs and achieve economic, environmentally friendly, and efficient operation of the RES. Third, by setting up scenarios such as no energy storage system and an independent energy storage system (IESS) of each MES and SESS, a case of a science and education park in Guangzhou, China, is illustrated for experiments. Numerical experiment results show that with an SESS built by the investor in the RES and applying the mentioned energy management strategy, the utilization of clean energy can be 100%, the operation costs can be reduced by up to 9.78%, the pollutant emission can be reduced by 3.92%, and the peak-to-valley difference can be decreased by 20.03%. Finally, the influence of energy storage service fees and electricity tariffs on daily operation costs is discussed, and the operation suggestions of the SESS are proposed. It validates the effectiveness of the proposed strategy.