A few weeks ago, I wrote an article describing some of the intricacies on cogeneration systems. For those of you who don’t read everything I post (shame on you), I will give you a bit of a refresher:
Cogeneration plants are similar to traditional steam powered energy plants. They use a fuel, often coal, oil, or natural gas, to heat steam in a system. This steam then runs an electricity generation turbine. Although the turbines vary in design, shape, and size, they all essentially generate electricity by spinning magnets in a circle and inducing a current along a wire.
The difference between cogeneration plants and traditional electricity plants is that cogeneration facilities capture the excess heat produced by this steam process. They channel the excess heat into other sources such as industrial or heating applications.
Cogeneration offers a remarkable increase in efficiency. Often times, cogeneration facilities can see anywhere from 55-60% efficiency whereas traditional means of generation only account for somewhere between 35%-40%.
For those of you who are a bit confused about efficiency, it is a measurement of how much stored energy (in the forms of chemical bonds and/ or kinetic potential is transferred into a usable energy source such as electricity or heat. Often times, traditional means of electricity generation entirely disregard all of the excess heat energy produced as a byproduct of the generation process. This is why they fail to attain high levels of efficiency.
For this week, I wanted to take an in depth look at one of the more impressive cogeneration facilities
The Oswego plant in upstate New York, along the banks of Lake Ontario, is not a new generation facility. In fact, the project was completed in 1990. However, the Oswego plant did break grounds for championing a combined cycle cogeneration process. Previous to its completion, cogeneration was often thought to be a wasted process. The idea of heat recycling did not appear to be economically viable for a variety of reasons.
First off, during the time of the Oswego’s plant production, heating was not often done by linked steam transmission systems. Often times, especially in upstate New York, heating was done by oil on site and oil alone. In the late 80’s, oil prices were at a (relatively) cheap level due to the discovery of both the Alaska bank as well as a larger scale exploitation of the Saudi reserves.
However, with rising oil prices, many people, and especially industry operators turned to look for other means of heat production. What they found was a cheap and economical steam output from the Oswego generation facility. Coupled with the fact that heating off of the power plant was relatively environmentally conscious, many business partners quickly rose up in the early 90’s and the Oswego plant was able to create an impressive portfolio of clients.
The plant itself is very impressive. It is a 1040 MW plant that operates at a staggering 54% efficiency. Due to its heat recycling, it has shown that cogeneration really is a viable way of making the most out of the resources we are given.
Often times, critics of environmental protectionism and energy efficiency will site that the world is ours for the exploitation and quote various references to religious and biblical doctrines. However, should we not consider the tale of the prodigal son?
Perhaps it is our turn to stop wasting unnecessarily, apologize for our lavish nature, and lead a more conscious and understanding lifestyle as a nation, with respect to energy.
Perhaps.
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