| Texas CHP Initiative

What is CHP? Clean and efficient power! Is it possible to reduce energy costs and improve the environment? Yes, there are at least two ways to meet your electric and heat needs. The typical industrial, commercial or institutional consumer (the "building load" above) can rely on purchases from conventional generation (left side of the diagram). This requires the consumption of 66 units of fuel energy to generate power at a distant location and transport 20 units of electrical energy to the consumer. The building requires an additional 34 units of fuel energy to provide 29 units of useful heat to the consumer on-site. A total of 100 units of fuel provides 49 units of useful energy. The remaining 51 units of energy are wasted. With combined heat and power (CHP; right side), only 57 units of fuel energy are used in an efficient, integrated, sequential process. Generation of electricity occurs on the premises. CHP generates 20 units of electricity and captures the heat that would have been wasted! The losses are only 8 units. The customer received the required 49 units of useful energy. Conventional approach? 100 units of fuel. CHP? Only 57 units! Renewable resources (biomass) could also be used as the on-site fuel for generation of electricity and recovery of useful heat.

A typical CHP system consists of a prime mover to generate electricity, a heat recovery system to capture heat, a control system, an exhaust system, and an acoustic enclosure. CHP technologies and systems are well understood, and have been in use since the first days of US commercial power production.

CHP and the Texas Electric Industry

Combined heat and power (CHP) is known as "cogeneration" to many Texans. CHP technologies generate electrical and thermal energy in a single, integrated system close to the point of customer energy demand. Texas leads the US in the production of electricity from CHP applications. Nearly one quarter (23%) of all CHP generating capacity in the US is located in Texas⁽¹⁾. This generation capacity produces 20% of the electricity in Texas.⁽²⁾

How did this start in Texas?

The experiences of the industrial cogeneration industry in Texas provided a foundation for the existing electric generation market. Fuel efficiency improvements in the 1980's led to the pressure to transforms the entire Texas electric industry the 1990's.

Heat is a by-product of electric generation. It is typically wasted when electricity is generated. In fact, cooling towers and cooling ponds increase the cost of electricity produced at most large power plants in Texas. Cooling towers and cooling ponds dispose of the "waste" heat. The heat is wasted because the typical large power plant in Texas is located far from a "heat customer" -- someone who can use the heat energy. That is, there is no local market for the high quality heat which is produced at the large power plants. While that heat is wasted, many miles away there are "heat customers" who purchase fuel and use boilers and other devices to create heat. That heat created process steam when and where it is needed. It's too bad the waste heat is too far from the heat need -- the people paying for heat.

Why can't these operations (electric and heat production) get together?

In Texas, industrial consumers with heat and electric needs did "get together" in the 1980's, as soon as the Texas Legislature allowed industrial customers to sell excess electrical energy into the Texas power market. As a result, industrial customers with large heat needs were able to "cogenerate" -- to simultaneously/sequentially generate electricity and thermal energy (steam). This was an efficient process that reduced the waste of energy. The energy efficiency or cogeneration or CHP has brought great benefit to the Texas economy.

While there remains significant industrial CHP potential, a far greater potential for CHP growth will be achieved through the application of CHP by commercial and institutional customers. CHP systems of a few megawatts, or even as small as fifty kilowatts, are economical. However, only a committed effort will allow this potential to be realized. The Texas CHP Initiative was formed to address the policy and educational needs for CHP in Texas.

In the future, CHP in Texas will enhance self reliance, security, reliability, and energy efficiency, and it will provide clean energy that reduces waste, lowers air emissions, reduces water use and protects the environment.

Fuels

Natural gas is the fuel choice for CHP in Texas, although renewable fuels, such as agricultural wastes, biofuels and landfill gas are commercially attractive in a growing number of locations. The most obvious benefit of a CHP system is its efficient use of the chemical energy released when a fossil fuel is burned. The thermal efficiency of a typical "simple cycle" power plant is 33%, because the heat created through electric generation process is wasted. Combined cycle combustion turbines achieve efficiencies of 55%. By coordinating the generation of electricity with the production of heat, we can do much better.

The capture and use of waste heat allows CHP systems to achieve fuel efficiencies of 60% to 90%. Capturing waste heat requires a capital investment that is returned in energy cost savings over several years. Cogeneration in Texas has been a significant contributor to the Texas economy for 25 years. Now the benefits will come close to smaller customers, and to people who operate hospitals, hotels, elder care facilities, schools, colleges, offices, and local government buildings such as first-responder facilities.

The Texas CHP Initiative has prepared a white paper on CHP: "Twice the Power at Double the Efficiency: Providing Secure Energy in Texas With CHP." (Download PDF).

What is Combined Heat and Power?

CHP and the Texas Electric Industry

How did this start in Texas?

Why can't these operations (electric and heat production) get together?

Fuels