Scholarly record

COMMON CHALLENGES IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF DECENTRALIZED COMBINED HEAT AND POWER PRODUCTION (CHP)

Sigrid Kusch-Brandt

Abstract

Cogeneration, or combined heat and power production (CHP), delivers both electricity and heat simultaneously, which achieves high overall energy efficiency. Although CHP technologies are state of the art, and advantages of their adoption are well known, 70% (European Union) to 80% (worldwide) of the existing potential remains untapped. Initiatives fostering more widespread uptake of cogeneration so far often focus on large scale electricity supply schemes combined with the operation of district heating, while the situation at single industrial sites or other decentralized energy supply schemes is less in focus, although this area of potential application clearly merits high attention. A range of challenges can be identified in practice when it comes to implementation of CHP schemes at industrial sites or other decentralized locations. However, problems commonly occurring in such a context in practice are currently not well documented in literature. Using a lens located at the science-practice interface allows to explore typical contexts and to propose solutions for commonly occurring problems when it comes to implementation of decentralized CHP schemes, in particular in a business environment. Identified challenges can be structured into three clusters or dimensions. The challenges include (1) elements linked to meeting heat requirements in quantity but also in quality (heat valorisation dimension); (2) elements linked to the operation of the unit on site (technology dimension); and (3) specific management issues (management dimension). Each dimension is analysed and solutions to successfully meet challenges are indicated.

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