In recent years,the rapid development of renewable energy  has raised the demand for flexible operation of the power supply system. Deep peaking of coal-fired units will become the norm in the coming years. The flexibility modification of coal-fired generating units is an important step to resolve the conflict between thermal power and new energy development. In order to improve the deep peaking capability of coal-fired generating units,the coupling technology of coal-fired power generation and thermal storage was proposed. The coupling technology can achieve thermal-electrolytic coupling,enhance the deep peaking ability and flexible operation characteristics of the unit,and provide more space for new energy to access the grid. For the coupled coal-fired power generation-thermal storage technology,three types of physical thermal storage technologies that can be applied to coal-fired units,namely hot water thermal storage,phase change filled bed thermal storage and molten salt thermal storage were presented,and the characteristics of the three types of thermal storage technologies were analyzed and the research direction of the three physical heat storage technologies in the future was put forward. The indicators for evaluating the thermal performance of energy storage devices were summarized,including thermal storage and discharge power,dimensionless temperature,richardson number and thermal storage and discharge efficiency. A model for calculating the peaking capacity of the coupled coal-fired power generation-thermal storage system was also established,and the electro-thermal characteristics of the coal-fired power generation unit were coupled with the calculation model of the thermal storage system,so as to analyze the peaking capacity of the coupled coal-fired power generation-thermal storage system. A reasonable operation mechanism for the coupled coal-fired power generation-heat storage system was proposed,and the thermal performance indicators for evaluating the coupled system were established,namely the thermal efficiency of the heat storage process,the heat release process and the whole process,and the peak regulation capacity and peak regulation margin of the system. A comprehensive electric and thermal dispatch model of the coupled coal-fired power generation-heat storage system was constructed,which included the objective function and dispatch constraints. The scheduling constraints include power balance constraint,heat supply constraint,renewable energy output constraint,electric power constraint,thermal power constraint,climbing speed constraint,heat storage capacity constraint and heat storage capacity constraint. The integrated electric and thermal model of the coupled coal-fired power generation-thermal storage system is used as a decision-making tool for the scheduling system to reasonably arrange the system operation planning after the configuration of thermal storage,which provides an operation planning strategy for the power system. The coupled coal-fired power generation-thermal storage technology utilizes the flexibility of thermal energy utilization of thermal storage technology to adjust the system heat supply in a timely manner according to fluctuations in external thermal load,effectively meeting the thermal demand at different times,increasing the peaking capacity of coal-fired generating units,achieving the purpose of enhancing the level of renewable energy consumption of the integrated system,shifting peaks and filling valleys,and building a new type of power supply system.