The reliability benefits of redundant units and systems is understood by most engineers and facility operators. The availability of an “N+1” standby unit in the event of a failure or upset conditions can mean the difference between continuing production without pause or shutting down production and potentially losing millions in lost time and scrap. And as the owner/operator of a system contracted through a Microgrid as a Service structure, trigeneration surety can mean the difference between satisfying contractual obligations or paying penalties.

CHP Trigeneration Surety, as it relates to the JSC CHP microgrid, is the simultaneous production of three forms of energy: electricity, heating and cooling. This trigeneration system provides power, steam and chilled water to loads throughout the campus. The combustion turbines used in this process lose heat as they combust natural gas to create electricity.

The trigeneration facility captures this heat that would otherwise be lost and uses it to generate steam that is then used directly for heating applications and also used in steam-driven chillers to produce chilled water.

chp trigeneration efficiency calculation
This simultaneous production of three forms of energy – cooling, heating and power – from only one fuel input. Put another way, a portion of the energy content of the fuel being used in the combustion turbines is transformed into electrical energy that is distributed to the site. Likewise, a portion of that same fuel content is transformed into heating energy and yet a third transformed into cooling energy. Trigeneration is simply the most efficient means of utilizing fuel in an onsite energy generation process since there is so little unutilized energy in the process.

Conversely, conventional utility energy generation plants achieve conversion efficiencies of around 33% and very efficient cogeneration CHP plants achieve conversion efficiencies of around 70%. The JSC trigeneration process can achieve efficiencies of up to 90% due to the excellent coefficient of performance (COP) of the existing steam-driven chillers that are used in the process. This trigeneration system maximizes use of virtually every energy unit of natural gas used in the process.