Energy group urges promotion of combined power, heat output

Press, 26 July 1984, Page 21

Energy group urges promotion of combined power, heat output

Co-generation (the combined production of power and heat) had the potential to play a valuable role in New Zealand’s electrical supply system and should be encouraged, according to a report released by the Energy Advisory Committee. The committee, an independent body established by the Government to allow public participation in energy planning, recommended in its “Review of Energy Planning in 1983” that co-generation should be promoted in firms and institutions requiring significant quantities of process heat. Co-generation involves using a primary sources of energy, such as oil or gas, to produce both process heat and electricity in the same

system. A spokesman for the Electricity Division of the Ministry of Energy said that a local example of cogeneration was the Ashburton Electric Power Board’s hydro-electric power turbine on the Rangitata diver-sion-race irrigation scheme. Thermal power stations produced waste heat, and many North Eland thermal plants had introduced cogeneration to use this heat, said the spokesman. Experimental work into biomass energy generation, which used vegetables to produce gas heat, also involved cogeneration: The Energy Advisory Committee report said there was estimated potential to co-generate “well in excess of’ 1000 GWh a year in New

Zealand (the country’s electrical supply system produces 25,500 GWh of electricity a year, of which 247 GWh is co-generated at present). Co-generated electricity often cost less to produce than the estimated production cost of electricity from new power stations, and increasing cogeneration significantly would delay the need to build conventional generating systems, the report said. The committee recommended that the Electricity Division of the Ministry of Energy offer financial incentives to firms to invest in co-generation. Discounts on the purchase price of electricity could be offered where co-generated power

could be produced economically, or loan finance could be made available to potential co-generators. The committee also recommended that potential co-generators be identified, and the option of co-genera-tion be vigorously promoted to them for its financial benefits to both the cogenerator and the country, the more efficient use of energy resources, and the favourable environmental consequences of delaying construction of new power stations. Opportunities to invest in co-generation occurred when firms decided to replace or improve their process heat system, or when a new plant was being established. Promotion needed to

be aimed at these opportunities, said the report A guide showing where advice on co-generation might be obtained should be prepared, the committee recommended. The report also reviewed the gas sector in New Zealand in 1983. It recommended the establishment of gas sector forecasting and planning committees by the Ministry of Energy and other agencies connected with gas. These committees, similar to those in the electricity sector, would provide a framework for dealing with new uses of gas, coping with new discoveries, and improving pricing policy mechanisms.