part 1: overview of cogeneration and its status in asia - Fire

38 Part I: Overview of cogeneration and its status in Asia
4.2 Barriers to Cogeneration Development
Obstacles to cogeneration development can be classified into the following: technical
barriers, financial drawbacks, poor institutional framework, short-sighted electric utility
policies, and low environmental concern.
In most instances, these barriers are country specific because there are a lot of differences
in the energy demand patterns, electricity supply structures, fuel pricing, fuel availability,
climatic conditions, environmental considerations among the countries in the different
continents. For instance in Europe, the share of cogeneration in the overall power generation
in a country like France is low because the national policy in the past had been to depend
mainly on power generation based on nuclear energy. In Netherlands and Germany where
more natural gas and coal are available, the government policy has favoured cogeneration
development. In a country like Spain having no need for heating of buildings throughout the
year, there is a trend to recover the waste heat for comfort or process cooling applications
using vapour absorption chillers in the hotter months. In colder climates, urban cogeneration
schemes have been closely associated with district heating schemes to meet the space
heating and hot water requirements. The problems associated with industrial or commercial
cogeneration are quite different from those encountered in district heating applications which
contribute to about 40 per cent of the European Union’s electricity generation through
cogeneration.
4.2.1 Technical hurdles
First technical barrier is the lower level of awareness about the soundness of cogeneration
technologies due to the lack of technical information at the level of local utilities, industries,
potential cogenerators and governments. In fact, awareness building about cogeneration is
the very first step to promote cogeneration systems.
Lack of capability to locally manufacture some energy supply equipment can lead to higher
investments linked with higher cost of imported equipment. Inferior quality of equipment
produced by local manufacturers with poor technologies also hampers the propagation of
cogeneration systems.
In many developing countries, the technical expertise to design, construct and operate energy
efficient cogeneration systems is quite limited. For grid-dependent systems with the option of
electricity export to the grid, advanced electrical control systems are necessary for both
cogeneration plants and local electric utilities. The local electric utilities must have competent
personnel who are capable of operating a more complicated system consisting of utilityowned
power plants and cogenerators. The cogeneration systems need skilled technicians
for regular maintenance and trouble-free operation.
Lack of infrastructure is also one of the obstacles in promoting cogeneration systems. For
instance, there are natural gas networks in many developed countries. The lack of
infrastructure such as gas handling, storage and distribution auxiliaries in some developing
countries leads to technically more complicated systems for gas powered cogeneration.
4.2.2 Economic and financial constraints
Cogeneration systems are somewhat capital intensive. Investments required are sometimes
out of reach of energy consuming facilities such as industries, commercial buildings,
hospitals, etc., in many developing countries.