Energy and Exergy Analysis of a Combined Cycle Power Plant with Ice Thermal Energy Storage-Based Inlet Air Cooling

In hot arid climates, combined cycle power plants (CCPPs) can experience reduced performance as high ambient temperature increases compressor inlet temperature and specific compression work. This study develops a steady-state energy, exergy, and exergoeconomic model of a 750 MW CCPP integrated with an ice thermal energy storage (ITES) cooling subsystem under Basra, Iraq, climatic conditions. Four configurations are evaluated: a standard plant without cooling, compressor-inlet cooling, air-cooled-condenser (ACC) inlet cooling, and simultaneous dual-point cooling of the compressor and ACC inlet air. Twelve monthly meteorological conditions are used to characterize the seasonal operating envelope, while the annual-mean condition is used for the comparative optimization. Four objective functions are evaluated through independent single-objective genetic-algorithm (GA) runs: minimization of total operating cost rate, minimization of fuel cost rate, maximization of thermal efficiency, and maximization of exergy efficiency. The reported optimization results are therefore objective-specific rather than a single Pareto multi-objective optimum. At the common total-operating-cost objective, the reported optimum gives 9.468 × 10−3 USD/s for Case 2, 8.993 × 10−3 USD/s for Case 3, and 8.993 × 10−3 USD/s for Case 4, compared with 9.721 × 10−3 USD/s for the standard case. Under the corresponding Case-3 and Case-4 total-cost runs, the thermal efficiency is 49.44%, compared with 48.86% for the standard case. Exergy analysis shows that the combustion chamber remains the dominant source of exergy destruction. The results quantify the thermodynamic and economic effects of the alternative cooling configurations within the adopted steady-state model, while the transient charge/discharge behavior of the ITES tank remains outside the present model boundary.