The compressed air energy storage (CAES) has made great contribution to both electricity and renewable energy. In the pursuit of reduced energy consumption and relieving power utility pressure effectively, a novel trigeneration system based on CAES for cooling, heating and electricity generation by electrical energy peak load shifting is proposed in this paper. The cooling power is generated by the direct expansion of compressed air, and the heating power is recovered in the process of compression and storage. Based on the working principle of the typical CAES, the theoretical analysis of the thermodynamic system models are established and the characteristics of the system are analyzed. A novel method used to evaluate energy and economic performance is proposed. A case study is conducted, and the economic-social and technical feasibility of the proposed system are discussed. The results show that the trigeneration system works efficiently at relatively low pressure, and the efficiency is expected to reach about 76.3% when air is compressed and released by 15 bar. The annual monetary cost saving annually is about 53.9%. Moreover, general considerations about the proposed system are also presented. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.