Integrated Evaluation Of A Cogeneration Plant At Alberta Children's Hospital
Abstract
The world requires more efficient and cleaner ways to meet the growing global energy demand. Cogeneration plant is a powerful tool to meet electricity and heat demand for facilities. In Alberta, the use of cogeneration plant would lead to reduce the burning coal and gas emission from the Alberta grid and to use of other cleaner source of energy such as natural gas. However, the use of this new technology requires an integrated evaluation in order to see the benefits from different aspects. Cogeneration plants are suitable for facilities with constant demand of electricity and heat. Therefore, the Alberta Children’s Hospital is a potential user of cogeneration plants. This paper evaluates the feasibility of a cogeneration plant for the hospital considering economic, environmental and social aspects. Moreover, the overall efficiency of the project is evaluated. This evaluation considers energy losses in distribution, network and other losses from the current and future energy configuration of the Hospital in order to measure the big picture benefits of the project.