In today’s competitive landscape, businesses are looking for ways to reduce operating costs and move the needle on their sustainability goals. One of the most impactful areas for improvement is building energy management.
The NHSaves® utility partners are here to help. Through our programs, we can help your business implement energy-efficient technologies and solutions that can lead to less energy use, reduced bills and measurable progress toward your carbon-reduction goals.
One common inefficiency stems from the traditional method of purchasing electricity from the grid and generating heat separately can be highly inefficient. The solution? Combined Heat and Power (CHP) and integrated heat recovery systems.
What is Combined Heat and Power (CHP)?
CHP systems simultaneously generate electricity and thermal energy from a single fuel source such as natural gas, or renewable fuels like biomass or biogas. There are two common methods that achieve the same results in CHP systems: combustion turbine and steam boiler. In combustion turbine systems, fuel is burned to generate electricity and capture heat through the use of a generator and heat recovery tools. Alternatively, steam boiler systems use steam to turn a turbine that powers a generator, thereby creating electricity and capturing heat.
Unlike traditional methods where electricity generation at a central plant releases heat into the atmosphere and a separate boiler creates heat for your facility, CHP systems capture this wasted heat and put it to work. This simple yet significant difference is why CHP systems can reach between 65 and over 80 percent in overall efficiency.
Coming out of the electricity generation process, recovered thermal energy is converted into useful forms:
- Steam or hot water for space heating, domestic hot water usage or for industrial processes like drying and sterilization
- Chilled water for process cooling or air conditioning, a configuration often called CCHP (Combined Cooling, Heat and Power)
Business Benefits: More Than Just Savings
The adoption of CHP systems and heat recovery offers a powerful combination of economic, operational and environmental advantages that can significantly strengthen your business.
1. Significant Savings Opportunities
By generating your own electricity and utilizing recovered heat, you can drastically reduce the amount of energy that your facility consumes.
- Lower Energy Bills: Operating with high efficiency means you use less fuel for the same energy output, which can result in lower energy bills over time.
2. Enhanced Energy Security and Resilience
Electric grid outages, whether caused by severe weather or technical failure, can halt business operations, leading to lost revenue and potential damage. CHP systems can be designed to operate independently from the main electric grid in a state called “island mode” that offers flexibility and resilience.
- Reliable Power: This on-site generation capability ensures that critical operations like data centers, hospitals and manufacturing lines can continue running even when the electric grid is down, therefore solving a power reliability pain point.
3. Substantial Environmental Impact
For businesses with carbon-reduction goals, CHP systems and heat recovery offer a clear path toward more sustainable operations.
- Lower Emissions: By using less fuel to produce the same energy output and avoiding transmission losses, CHP systems can significantly reduce greenhouse gas and other air pollutant emissions compared to conventional methods.
- Fuel Flexibility: CHP systems are compatible with increasingly available low-carbon and renewable fuels, such as biogas and hydrogen blends.
With current electric rates increasing across New England and the availability of substantial federal tax credits toward natural gas-burning equipment, now could be a good time to transition to a CHP system for your business.
This technology is an ideal solution for facilities that have a large, consistent and year-round demand for electricity and thermal energy. Industrial, commercial and institutional settings that fall in this category, like food and beverage processors, office complexes and universities, all have the potential to benefit greatly from the incorporation of a CHP system in their buildings.
Taking the Next Step
Adopting combined heat and power systems for your business and implementing comprehensive heat recovery is more than just an energy upgrade: it’s a strategic business investment that pays dividends through lower costs, greater resilience and cleaner operations.
By working with the NHSaves utility partners to plan a custom project, technical support and financial incentives may be available to further boost your business’s savings opportunities. Head to nhsaves.com/businesses-towns/ to learn more about CHP systems for your business.