The number of CHP Cogeneration systems used throughout the country is rapidly increasing; and distributed energy capacity, represented by CHP systems, is reaching an important significance when it comes to grid integration. The U.S. government set a goal, which aims for the implementation of 40 gigawatts of new CHP systems in the U.S. by 2020, recommending this highly efficient and environmentally friendly technology as key for advanced energy production, making CHP a prominent contributor towards the entire energy generation mix.

In the past, CHP systems were most often only built to supply customers with power, independent of the grid. They were usually part of university and facility managers’ innovative approach to emergency power and were strictly used for power during grid outages.

Today, CHP systems are beginning to play a much more important and useful role as the foundations of microgrid systems, which offer continuous reliable power to utilities and grid operators, especially during natural disaster emergency situations. Almost all the large-scaled microgrid systems that kept running amidst grid outages during Hurricane Sandy were CHP systems. Due to these experienced unpredictable severities, New York and Connecticut, among several other states, are looking to invest millions of dollars to create more storm-resilient energy system involving microgrids.

According to the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, CHP Cogeneration systems can also be useful to mitigate the intermittency of solar and wind power, as compared to conventional large-scale generation. This is largely due CHP microgrids coming in bite-sized versus megawatt-scale increments, which do not experience power losses seen with transmission and distribution lines. Various utilities in the U.S. are already working on ways to integrate these grid-edge resources into their traditional grid capacity and reliability planning methods; countries like Germany and Japan are, arguably, even further ahead with this development.

One good example of CHP Cogeneration success is Simmonds International, a manufacturer of high quality saw blades in Fitchburg Massachusetts. With industrial electricity prices in Massachusetts as high as $0.20 per kW/h, the company decided to take an important step towards independence and energy cost savings. After extensive comparison and evaluation, a team of engineers decided to implement a Combined Heat and Power System from 2G CENERGY.

“Many corporations, manufacturers and facility owners in North America are ditching their old power suppliers, opting instead to utilize Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Systems”

This complex project, with energy needs of 1.6MW, was realized with the implementation of three modular cogeneration plants, each with a capacity of 600ekW. This configuration provides much more flexibility and reliability. Due to Simmonds choosing one of 2G CENERGY’s pre-engineered containerized solutions, the originally projected engineering costs of the project were cut by nearly 80 percent. Installation and commissioning of the system at the facility took only two weeks to complete.

Simmonds utilizes the heat to feed a large absorption chiller, which provides the facility with cooling during summer months and heating through the winter. In order to meet strict local air emission limits, three Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) systems with advanced active emissions control were integrated into the system; the result is an ultra-low emission system. Bottom line, Simmonds International, was able to significantly reduce their overall energy costs.

One thing is certain; CHP is on a roll and coming on-line at a rapid pace! CHP cogeneration is and will be an important part of the overall energy infrastructure.