Liquid Air Energy Storage (LAES) stores electricity in the form of a liquid cryogen while making hot and cold streams available during charging and discharging processes. The combination of electricity, hot and cold makes LAES a promising asset for the management of multi-energy streams in various energy systems; however, such opportunity has not received attention so far. To overcome the traditional view of LAES as electricity storage only, this study investigates the techno-economic value of using LAES as a smart multi-energy asset for the provision of heat and cold, alongside power, in districts with heating and cooling networks. A reduced thermodynamic model of LAES was developed, validated and used to i) quantify the thermodynamic efficiency for a multi-energy LAES, ii) generalise the multi-energy capability of LAES over the three energy vectors considered iii) link different plant designs and integration conditions – in terms of loads and temperatures – with the associated multi-energy LAES performance and iv) describe multi-energy LAES operation as part of two district sizes, for provision of peak and base load. It is found that, by leveraging the vector-coupling capability of LAES, more flexible district operation can be achieved, with increased LAES energy efficiency from 47% to 72.8% and up to 8–12% reduction of operational costs, in the considered integration case studies. Results demonstrate the technical feasibility of multi-energy LAES operation and illustrate the associated trade-offs and potential: new perspectives for smart management of multi-energy systems are opened up.

液态空气储能（LAES）以液态制冷剂的形式存储电能，同时在充电和放电过程中提供冷热流。电，热和冷的结合使LAES成为管理各种能源系统中多能量流的有前途的资产；但是，到目前为止，这种机会尚未引起注意。为了克服传统的仅将LAES视为电力存储的观点，本研究调查了使用LAES作为智能多能源资产在具有供热和制冷网络的区域中提供热能和冷能以及电力的技术经济价值。开发，验证并使用了简化的LAES热力学模型，用于：i）量化多能量LAES的热力学效率，ii）在考虑的三个能量矢量上概括LAES的多能量能力iii）将不同的工厂设计和集成条件（在负载和温度方面）与相关的多能量LAES性能联系起来，以及iv）描述多能量LAES操作作为两个区域规模的一部分，用于提供峰值和基本负载。结果发现，在考虑的集成中，通过利用LAES的矢量耦合功能，可以实现更灵活的区域操作，将LAES的能效从47％提高到72.8％，并将运营成本降低多达8-12％。实例探究。结果证明了多能量LAES操作的技术可行性，并说明了相关的取舍和潜力：为多能量系统的智能管理开辟了新的前景。