Abstract:In developing countries like Pakistan, the capacity shortage (CS) of electricity is a critical problem. The frequent natural gas (NG) outages compel consumers to use electricity to fulfill the thermal loads, which ends up as an increase in electrical load. In this scenario, the authors have proposed the concept of a combined heat & power (CHP) plant to be a better option for supplying both electrical and thermal loads simultaneously. A CHP plant-based microgrid comprising a PV array, diesel generators and batteries (operating in grid-connected as well as islanded modes) has been simulated using the HOMER Pro software. Different configurations of distributed generators (DGs) with/without batteries have been evaluated considering multiple objectives. The multiple objectives include the minimization of the total net present cost (TNPC), cost of generated energy (COE) and the annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as well as the maximization of annual waste heat recovery (WHR) of thermal units and annual grid sales (GS). These objectives are subject to the constraints of power balance, battery operation within state of charge (SOC) limits, generator operation within capacity limits and zero capacity shortage. The simulations have been performed on six cities including Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta and Gilgit. The simulation results have been analyzed to find the most optimal city for the CHP plant integrated microgrid.