The U.S. Department of Energy, the Oak Ridge (Tenn.) National Laboratory, teams of engineers, and heating and cooling equipment companies are packaging combined heat and power (CHP) system components in units that promise to cut capital costs, slash CHP installation time by two-thirds, adapt to any number of space limitations and capacity requirements, and provide customers with a one-stop shop.
One of the package projects involving the Gas Technology Institute, Waukesha, Trane, Ballard Engineering, Charles Equipment and the University of Illinois is combining 290- to 770-kilowatt reciprocating engine generators with absorption chillers in a plug-and-play configuration.
Another project teams Austin Energy and Burns & McDonnell with Broad USA and Solar Turbines to integrate a 5-megawatt combustion turbine generator with a 2,500-ton waste-heat-fired absorption chiller that will not only produce 2,500 tons of free cooling but also displace 2,500 tons of electrical centrifugal chilled water.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory is also working to make CHP easier for health facilities managers to explore. It has developed a survey form to quickly determine whether a hospital is a good candidate for CHP (for a copy, contact hospitals@ornl.gov). In addition, Oak Ridge is working with regional application centers to provide on-the-ground support, arrange site visits for health facilities interested in pursuing CHP, and act as liaisons with state energy offices.
The Midwest CHP Applications Center at the University of Illinois
in Chicago, for example,
conducts seminars and workshops and coordinates a program with
the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago that will pay 50
percent of the cost of a hospital's CHP evaluation up to a maximum
of $5,000. The Midwest CHP Applications Center also is working
with five states in the region to identify the hospitals that
might benefit the most from CHP.
For more information on these and other projects related to CHP, log on to www.eere.energy.gov/der/bchp_packaged.html.--K.S.
This article first appeared in the November 2003 issue of HFM.
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