Original article in French publication ‘Technolgies et Innovations Hospitalieres, May 2014
Cogeneration allows to simultaneously produce electricity and heat at a lower cost, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It is a high efficiency solution for decentralised energy production using onsite gas engines. Today the (French) power purchase obligation rate is favourable to these investments.
France has 860 cogeneration facilities, the third European fleet installed after the Netherlands and the Germany. The solution is also used for district heating, for offices, housing, hospitals, retirement homes, cogeneration may also be deployed in commercial greenhouses and industry.
Overall, France produces 4% of its electricity with this solution for a global potential of 6.5 GW including 5 powered by natural gas. As explained by Michel Susini, Commercial Director of Clarke Energy authorised distributor and service provider for GE’s Jenbacher gas engines in France, “in addition to the production of electricity, the cogenerator allows the recovery of heat in the form of hot water or steam”
Indeed, the interest of this off-site and independent production is that you can use the heat generated by generators directly on the site of use, for example, heating of premises, or in the form of steam, for a laundry. Compared to traditional centralised power production plants, cogeneration allows an efficiency greater than 90%. “Cogeneration is not only the solution to make substantial savings on energy bills, but it reduces the environmental impact”, says Michel.
A trigeneration system also allows to use the heat to produce the cold under installation of an absorption chiller. In France, several hospitals have already opted for cogeneration systems. Clarke Energy has equipped the Montpellier CHRU La Colombière, which produced nearly 5 MW, the Hospital of Lunéville, or that of Roanne. Often, the option is chosen at the time of refurbishment of the facilities.
“The cogeneration plant integrates fully with existing installations, and becomes priority in terms of production of heat for the hospital. The other interest is to have a stand-alone electrical production which can if necessary run in mode and thus securing electricity supplies independently of the national grid.” says Michel Susini. Clarke Energy, provides turnkey operators, usually third-party investors as a group Veolia, GDF-Suez, Idex,… to perform the installation and maintenance of the equipment.
Alternatively the company can directly provide these services with hospitals wishing to invest. Indeed, in France, EDF has obligation to buy the electricity produced by these cogeneration at a regulated tariff, which allows the amortisement of the investment. Michel Susini said that currently the new rate of duty for the purchase of electricity produced by cogeneration (tariff C13) “allows by its structure of indexing per report market, by its modularity and the gas tariff a better match of cogeneration to the hospital sector”.
Compared to centralised power production facilities, cogeneration is an energy production close to the user, which allows savings of fossil fuels and reduces the emission of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Clarke Energy is an active member of l’Association Technique Energie Environnement (ATEE),  the association called Metheor focusing on digestion of organic waste and Biogaz Vallée.
