Distributed Power Generation Has Come of Age
I found this five year old post that proclaims they time for cogeneration has come. It is more true today than ever. -Editor The Future of Small Scale Distributed Generation Feb 27, 2004 12:00 PM, By George Zirnhelt, P.E., Power Systems Research, Inc. Even though the United States’ electric utility system delivers only 20% to 30% of potential energy to end-users, it’s still the most cost-effective means of generation available today. Distributed generation (DG) has proven to be more efficient, but its cost has been prohibitive to this point. Its supporters have been pushing to capture more of the power market for years, but until it can compete on both levels, it will have trouble. In certain situations, however, economics, reliability, and/or quality have created a circumstance where it actually makes sense for the electric power user to generate his own power. Large-scale industrial users—especially those who can also use the by-product heat—can justify the investment on economic ter...