Reduced Exergy Method for Heat-Electricity Cost Allocation in Combined Heat and Power Plants

Abstract: Although the cost allocation method does not change the total benefits of CHP, the use of various cost allocation methods generally results in significant differences in costs allocated for CHP products. In order to overcome the inadequacy of existing cost allocating methods in theory and in practice, according to the different roles of anergy and exergy in heat supply process of CHP plant, the reduced exergy method for cost allocation is formulated by introducing the concepts of the available anergy and reduced exergy. The contribution of the available anergy is expressed with a user factor, which can reflect different utilization for different practical conditions. Some practical conditions for typical CHP units are computed and compared with existing methods. Calculations show that the cost allocation by using the reduced exergy model is more rational and practical than those by using existing models in terms of embodying the physical meaning.