Novel Trigeneration Analysis Model (TAM) for Assessing Optimal Cooling and CCHP Scenarios in Urban New Developments

This paper provides an overview of a novel Trigeneration Analysis Model (TAM) developed at London South Bank University (LSBU) using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) language in MS Excel. TAM provides a user-friendly mechanism for evaluating multiple variants of tri-generation or CCHP scenarios and quantifying the energy, cost and carbon savings relative to a conventional base case solution. It integrates a number of complex parameters pertaining to the building/development, systems, and key financial, technical and environmental variables. It can also be used to predict the optimal capacity per square metre (W/m2), net present value per square metre (£/m2) and carbon savings per square metre (kgCO2e saved/m2) for different development and technology scenarios with different heat/cooling-to-power ratios. Thus, TAM can be a useful tool for supporting decision making on optimal cooling solutions including trigeneration for urban new developments. The main elements of TAM, its capabilities and limitations are presented in this paper. Some of the scenarios modelled using TAM are presented to highlight its functionalities.