The central air conditioning system has been of interest for peak load regulation in the power grid due to its high energy consumption and overlapping with the peak load of the power grid. To study and explore the potential of peak load regulation in central air conditioning systems, a self-storage method for central air conditioning systems is proposed. This method achieves storage and release of cold energy by adjusting the chilled water temperature of the user-side pipeline network, transferring peak air conditioning energy consumption, and achieving the goal of peak shaving and valley filling. The central air conditioning system of a certain actual building is used as a research object. A model of the central air conditioning system is developed, and simulations are conducted to study the operating characteristics of the system under different air conditioning load rates and cold storage capacity. The peak shaving potential and operational economy of the building′s self-storage energy are evaluated. The energy efficiency ratio for a cold storage capacity of 100% at an air conditioning load ratio of 40% is 4.2, and 27 min are required. Under an air conditioning load ratio of 100%, cold storage capacity of 100%, and cooling end water temperature of 12 ℃, the peak shaving electricity consumption after 60 min of cooling is 745 kW·h, and the peak shaving ratio is 23.9%. The use of self-storage energy during a typical day during the cooling season with a maximum cooling load of 11673 kW can reduce the peak electricity consumption of the air conditioning system by 3.9% and peak electricity consumption by 19.8%, resulting in a daily saving of 3.0% in the operating electricity cost of the air conditioning system.

An energy-saving optimization operation strategy based on maintaining the high-energy-efficiency operation of chillers is proposed to address the prevalent issue of increased energy consumption in the application of cold-storage technology for economic optimization in the current air-conditioning industry. This strategy involves the storage and release of cooling using small cold-storage tanks to actively control the load ratio of the water chiller, thus ensuring that the unit operates efficiently for an extended period to achieve energy savings. A physical model of the air-conditioning system is established and simulated using operational data from the central air-conditioning system of a hospital. Performance curves of the water chiller under different environmental conditions are obtained to accurately depict the high-efficiency operational states of the unit at each moment. On a typical day with a peak cooling load of 9979 kW, using an active chilled-water storage system, as compared with using the conventional chiller operation strategy without active storage, can reduce 2777 kW·h of daily electricity consumption, which constitutes 6.0% of the daily electricity usage of the central air-conditioning system. Over the entire cooling season, this approach can save 2.35% of the total electricity consumption of the central air-conditioning system and 4.45% of the electricity consumption of the chiller.