In the energy sector, one of the key criteria for selecting technological solutions is their economic profitability. The article compares the costs of producing cold in two variants of trigeneration systems: with a compressor chiller (driven by an electric motor or mechanically from a gas turbine) and with a thermal chiller, driven by heat from exhaust gases. Mathematical models with continuous time were used for the economic analysis. The main objective of the analysis was to calculate the unit cost of producing cold depending on such parameters as: fuel prices, electricity, CO2 emission allowances, exhaust gas temperature, and investment outlays. The impact of these factors on the costs of producing cold is difficult to analyze, but the mathematical models with continuous time and dimensionless variables used in this article enable universal comparisons for systems with different capacities. The calculation results show that the cost of producing cold is strongly dependent on the above-mentioned factors.