Conversion of stand-by-generator facilities to combined heat and power units

Abstract

Effective use of energy could considerably extend the life of existing fuel resources and make the introduction of new sources much less urgent. One possible alternative is combined heat and power from stand-by-generators of which the United State of America has a relatively high capacity in this regard. Many organizations dependent on electricity have diesel generator sets as a backup in the event of failure of the main electricity supply. More recently it was noted that the local electricity had a peak demand period covering times when the factories were not operating and stand-by-generators were idle. Conversion of stand-by-generator facilities to CHP units allows them to be used for profitable generation of electricity and heat. The first part of the paper involves the studies carried out by author to determine the availability of nonrenewable sources of energy today and in the future as well as the environmental impact of using energy. The second part of the paper presents a fundamental design of CHP from stand-by-generators of Monash Medical Centre (case study) and modification of the entire system to enable units to operate as a sustained basis and in parallel with the main electricity supply and also some suggestions from the author for cogeneration systems using a single fuel to simultaneously produce two forms of energy usually useful heat and electricity.<>