Aggregations of residential developments and domestic housing are characterised by having a demand for electricity, heating and cooling. Combined heat and power or combined heat power and cooling technology can be deployed in these schemes. With larger scale gas engines such as the Jenbacher product typically you would need to have an aggregated demand of at least ~300kW of electricity and 300kW of heating or cooling demand. With a typical house consuming around 8-10kWh of electricity and 33-38kWh of gas per day, you will need a significant number of dwellings to justify a larger CHP plant. This could be a tower block, or an aggregation of dwellings supplied by a district energy scheme and as part of a mixed use with complementary commercial or industrial energy users. Larger schemes deploying CHP are typically led by municipalities or independent power producers.
Benefits of CHP for residential and community developments
- Reduced electricity and heating bills for consumers
- Reduced emissions
- Resilience of power supply
Stable resilient power for communities
Self-generation of power for a locality can result in higher levels of resiliency. In the event of a natural disaster or a failure of the grid electricity network a community power scheme can have the ability to disconnect from the grid. A residential CHP scheme could therefore be grid connected, islandable or operate solely in island mode operation. CHP plants can also be combined with other power generation or storage technologies as part of a microgrid.
Environmental benefits
Gas engines can be fuelled with numerous low carbon and renewable fuels including natural gas, biogas, biomethane and hydrogen. When deployed in a combined heat and power configuration, gas engine CHP plants are highly efficient and by generating close to the site of use negate transmission losses.
Learn more
Gas engine-based combined heat and power can be used in a variety of different residential applications. To find out more about the benefits of cogeneration for your development please contact your local Clarke Energy office for more information.