ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how and why economy, power quality, and capacity depend upon and interact with operating schedules. It reviews analysis methods that estimate production schedule impact on Distributed generators (DG) suitability and operating costs, and provides several example cases to highlight important concepts. The chapter deals with a look at fuel economy and its basic relationship to demand schedules. Set a DG unit to operate at that point of its maximum efficiency, and it will achieve its best fuel economy. Set it at any other level and it will require more fuel to produce each kilowatt. Qualitatively, all DG units have this characteristic, but the quantitative details vary widely. Characteristics vary, but every electric generator has some output point at which it is most efficient, and operating levels at which it is very much less efficient, which are characterized by a heat rate curve.
