What Are The Benefits of Cogeneration?

Jason Kaplan

Key benefits of cogeneration include high efficiency. We’re able to extract a lot more of the energy out of the fuel than you can otherwise receive from the grid by itself. By putting the power plant at the same location as the energy that is going to be consumed, you reduce the losses in heat and transmission losses that would otherwise occur from buying grid electricity. So, a high efficiency system means that you’re going to end up paying less for the usable energy that comes out of it.

Standa Soucek

Another benefit is CO2 saving. If you compare the grid in the U.S. and the CO2 production on average one year ago, the average for electrical production was roughly 1300 pounds per megawatt hour of CO2 created. Comparably, if you install a 1.5-megawatt CHP unit, you produce only 650 pounds of CO2 per megawatt hour. It means that the CHP unit is still greener than the current grid.

Jason Kaplan

The other benefit of CHP is the fact that it’s immediately dispatchable unlike some of the other renewable technologies, wind or solar, require the atmospheric conditions to be just right to produce the maximum amount of power. With a CHP plant, you can hit the button, the engine will start and you will immediately have the power production. That provides a high degree of resiliency. It is more reliable than technologies that rely on the transmission grid. As long as gas is present, power can be generated unlike those other technologies.