Combined cooling, heating, and power (CCHP) system is an effective solution to solve energy and environmental problems. However, due to the demand-side load uncertainty, load-prediction error, environmental change, and demand charge, the energy dispatch optimization of the CCHP system is definitely a tough challenge. In view of this, this paper proposes a dispatch method based on the deep reinforcement learning (DRL) algorithm, DoubleDQN, to generate an optimal dispatch strategy for the CCHP system in the summer. By integrating DRL, this method does not require any prediction information, and can adapt to the load uncertainty. The simulation result shows that compared with strategies based on benchmark policies and DQN, the proposed dispatch strategy not only well preserves the thermal comfort, but also reduces the total intra-month cost by 0.13~31.32%, of which the demand charge is reduced by 2.19~46.57%. In addition, this method is proven to have the potential to be applied in the real world by testing under extended scenarios.
Keywords: CCHP system; DoubleDQN; deep reinforcement learning; demand charge; energy dispatch; uncertainties.