Abstract: In the novel thermoelectric system, a heat storage device can effectively decouple "heat-set power" constraints and resolve the curtailment of wind power. In view of the optimal allocation of thermal storage tank capacity, the investment and maintenance costs of the thermal storage tank were added to the virtual power plant operation model consisting of wind turbine, thermoelectricity, thermal storage tank and carbon capture, then converted into daily depreciation and daily maintenance costs. The objective function is defined as the minimization of total operating cost of the virtual power plant subject to the thermal-electric coupling constraints of the cogeneration unit as well as the ramping up constraints of thermal storage tanks and carbon capture units. The simulation results show that with the optimized capacity of the regenerator tank the unit operation is more economical than those with the traditional given regenerative tank capacity, and more efficient regarding the heat storage effect. The optimal capacity of the regenerator tank depends not only on the economic efficiency of the virtual power plant, but also on the constraints such as carbon capture, wind power consumption, etc. in the virtual power plant. Without carbon capture requirement, or with the higher wind power consumption requirements, the optimum capacity of the regenerator tank could be even higher.

Key words: heat storage tank, virtual power plant, cogeneration unit, carbon capture, wind power accommodation