Integrating virtual heat plants into combined heat and power system dispatch: A new pathway to improve the air quality

Aiming to address the atmospheric environmental and operational challenges posed by energy systems, this paper introduces a virtual heat plant (VHP)-based environmental dispatch framework for combined heat and power (CHP) systems. The proposed approach exploits the flexibility of controllable heat loads (CHLs) to enhance system adjustability and reduce air pollutant emissions. The VHP aggregates numerous small-scale CHLs, which individually exhibit significant operational heterogeneity and demand diversity. To address the computational complexity of managing these loads, a polytope-based aggregation and disaggregation method is proposed. Through translation and scaling operations, the approach constructs the maximal inner approximate polyhedral feasible set, enabling effective assessment and regulation of the overall flexibility of the aggregated CHLs while ensuring solution feasibility and facilitating the accommodation of renewable energy. Additionally, a Gaussian plume dispersion model is employed to simulate air pollutant diffusion, and by evaluating the atmospheric environmental capacity (AEC) in different regions, differentiated constraints are applied, dynamically adjusting CHLs and generator outputs. Simulation results on both small- and large-scale integrated electricity–heat network systems scaled from real-world systems demonstrate that the proposed VHP and its regulation strategy significantly improve system flexibility and environmental outcomes by optimizing resource management.