Abstract
Purpose Retrofit, defined to be addition of new technologies or features to the old system to increase efficiency or to abate GHG emissions, is considered as an important alternative for the old coal-fired power plant. The purpose of this study is to propose mathematical method to model multiple alternative retrofit in Generation Capacity Expansion Planning(GCEP) problem, and to get insight to the retrofit patterns from realistic case studies. Design/methodology/approach This study made a multi-alternative retrofit GECP model by adopting some new variables and equations to the existing GECP model. Added variables and equations are to ensure the retrofit feature that the life time of retrofitted plant is the remaining life time of the old power plant. We formulated such that multiple retrofit alternatives are simultaneously compared and the best retrofit alternative can be selected. And we found that old approach to model retrofit has a problem that old plant with long remaining life time is retrofitted earlier than the one with short remaining life time, fixed the problem by some constraints with some binary variables. Therefore, the proposed model is formulated into a mixed binary programming problem, and coded and run using the GAMS/cplex. Findings According to the empirical analysis result, we found that approach to model the multiple alternative retrofit proposed in this study is comparing simultaneously multiple retrofit alternatives and select the best retrofit satisfying the retrofit features related to the life time. And we found that retrofit order problem is cleared. In addition, the model is expected to be very useful in evaluating and developing the national policies concerning coal-fired power plant retrofit.
