A novel operation strategy based on minimum distance was proposed. Also, an integrated evaluation criterion which can reflect the matching performance between the CCHP (combined cooling, heating and power) system and the building was presented. A hospital in Shanghai was used to evaluate the CCHP system with the proposed strategy using the proposed evaluation criterion. The proposed operation strategy was compared with FEL (following the electric load), FTL (following the thermal load) and FHL (following hybrid electric-thermal load) strategies. The results show that the matching performance evaluation criterion is reasonable and integrated. The system with a better matching performance would be fully used and maintain high efficiency. Compared with FEL, FTL and FHL strategies, the proposed operation strategy is flexible and adaptable, which can lead to a better matching performance for a CCHP system. In the case study, the optimized power generation unit capacity and weightings of the optimized operation strategy are 900 kW and w(1,above) equals to 0.4, w(1,below) equals to 0.1, respectively. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.