ABSTRACT
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Power generation systems create large amounts of heat in the process of converting fuel into electricity. For the average utility-sized power plant, more than two-thirds of the energy content of the input fuel is converted to heat. Conventional power plants discard this waste heat, and by the time electricity reaches the average American outlet, only 30% of the energy remains. Distributed generation (DG), due to its load-appropriate size and siting, enables the economic recovery of this heat. An end user can generate both thermal and electrical energy in a single combined heat and power (CHP) system located at or near its facility. CHP systems can deliver energy with efficiencies exceeding 90% (Casten, 1998).
