WHAT IS COGENERATION? Combined Heat & Power

 

Cogeneration, Combined Heat and Power generation, is self-generation of electrical power using natural gas or biogas as fuel with simultaneous generation of heat that can be used for other processes, in the form of a hot water stream or a hot gas stream, or both.

All industrial processes and human life in the modern world require the consumption of energy in different forms, motive energy, light energy, or in the form of heat to generate steam or air conditioning.

Commercially, the supply of electricity is carried out by the local distribution company at a cost. Additionally, fuel gas is normally consumed to produce heat; this fuel is supplied by the corresponding local distribution company also at a cost. There may be consumers who use other fuels such as diesel or coal, however, in urban and industrial properties it is common to use natural gas distributed through a grid of pipelines.

By using cogeneration, the consumption of electrical energy from an external entity is substituted since it is produced with motor-generating units in which the heat produced in the engines is used to use it in other processes.

As a consequence, when generating your electricity using heat, the cost of consuming natural gas must be less than the cost of supplying electricity plus the cost of supplying gas.

If the user requires chilled water for use in an air conditioning system, he can use absorption chillers and supply the heat source required by them using cogeneration units. In this case, the system is called TRIGENERATION, since it produces: electricity + hot water + chilled water. All of this, without consuming additional energy.

But, the benefit is not only economic. Cogeneration reduces the amount of heat released into the atmosphere as a large part of the heat generated is used in other processes. This added to the fact that in total, less energy is required to carry out the same processes constitutes an undeniable environmental benefit.