Compressed air energy storage technologies can improve the supply capacity and stability of the electricity grid, particularly when fluctuating renewable energies are massively connected. While incorporating the combined cooling, heating and power systems into compressed air energy storage could achieve stable operation as well as efficient energy utilization. In this paper, a novel combined cooling, heating and power based compressed air energy storage system is proposed. The system combines a gas engine, supplemental heat exchangers and an ammonia-water absorption refrigeration system. The design tradeoff between the thermodynamic and economic objectives, i.e., the overall exergy efficiency and the total specific cost of product, is investigated by an evolutionary multi-objective algorithm for the proposed combined system. It is found that, with an increase in the exergy efficiency, the total product unit cost is less affected in the beginning, while rises substantially afterwards. The best trade-off solution is selected with an overall exergy efficiency of 53.04% and a total product unit cost of 20.54 cent/kWh, respectively. The variation of decision variables with the exergy efficiency indicates that the compressor, turbine and heat exchanger preheating the inlet air of turbine are the key equipment to cost-effectively pursuit a higher exergy efficiency. It is also revealed by an exergoeconomic analysis that, for the best trade-off solution, the investment costs of the compressor and the two heat exchangers recovering compression heat and heating up compressed air for expansion should be reduced (particularly the latter), while the thermodynamic performance of the gas engine need to be improved significantly. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.