ENERGY SOURCES

UNIT-V
NOTES

DECENTRALIZED POWER GENERATION:

When energy is generated and distributed using small scale technologies

closer to its end users, it is termed as Decentralized Generation.
Decentralized electrification involves generating electricity at or near the place
where it will be used. This involves setting up a smaller scale electricity generating
unit and supplying to a limited area. These are generally locally managed and supply
smaller loads, such as households.
They can be integrated to the grid or be completely off-grid. These units can be
powered by fossil fuels, such as diesel generators, or by renewables such as solar PV,
wind, biomass, micro hydro and so on.

With falling costs of renewables and improved electricity storage technology,

there is an increased interest in decentralized power supplies because, unlike the
extension of the centralized electric grid, smaller scale grids can be set up as a viable
business using local investment.
It can also serve to increase skill levels and employment opportunities in local
populations who may be employed in the construction and maintenance of the
decentralized systems.
For the end consumer, this could provide an option to access energy without
excessive upfront costs when services are combined with micropayment or pay-as-
you-go models.
This would save them the monthly subscription costs as well as the minimum
billing amounts often seen in grid connected systems.

Challenges in Decentralised Energy Generation:

High costs and recovery issues: Though costs of renewables are decreasing,
the financial expenditure needed to set up a decentralized plant is still high. This
would be a problem in poorer regions, if demand is insufficient, or recovery is a
problem, since electricity from unsubsidized decentralized systems tends to have high
tariffs.
No subsidies available: The cost problem is increased by the fact that grid
electricity is often subsidized either through compensation with highly profitable
urban areas (cross-subsidization) or through government funds, while decentralized
electricity is often not. This is a basic regulatory issue, connected to the fact that grid
companies are well-established and often state-owned, while off-grid power is
usually provided by smaller and newer enterprises.
 Skilled manpower: Skilled manpower to manage and maintain these systems
may be lacking in remote rural areas.
Seasonal demand supply mismatch: Seasonal variation of demand and
supply needs to be considered in the design of these plants.

Daily demand supply mismatch: Mismatch between the hourly curves of

generation (typically solar) and of uptake (load curve), which implies the need for
energy storage provided by batteries.
1 Size: As of now mini-systems can only support smaller loads, such as
households or limited income generating activities. Scaling up the installed
capacity is challenging.
2 Environmental risk: the inadequate disposal of storage technologies, such as
batteries used in off-grid renewable energy solutions, poses significant
environmental risks. Thus, take back systems for such technologies must be
considered.

Decentralized generation can take place at two scales. At a local level, site
specific energy sources are used to generate electricity, constituting a Micro-Grid
which is a cluster of generations serving a limited number of consumers. It can be
either connected to the grid at a single point or can be totally independent of it.
At the second level, the same technologies are used at much smaller scale and
are installed by an individual energy consumer. Such a system is called Distributed
Generation. These sources can be individually connected to grid, so that they can
supply power to the grid when required – creating a prosumer, i.e., a producer and a
consumer of electricity.

Benefits of Decentralized Generation

Decentralized generations are small and offer numerous benefits in comparison to the
conventional centralized systems. Few of its benefits are discussed as follows:
 No high peak load shortages -Distributed generation systems can reduce the peak demand
and offer an effective solution to the problem of high peak load shortages.
 Reduced high transmission and distribution losses - It can greatly reduce the losses
during transmission and distribution of power from central location and hence improve the
reliability of the grid network. In India, the current losses amount to about 35% of the total
available energy.
 Linking remote and inaccessible areas - Distributed generation can play a major role in
providing power to remote and inaccessible areas. For a country like India, it offers a
solution towards rural electrification.
 Faster response to new power demands – The micro-grid systems are small scaled and
often require lower gestation periods, it enables faster and easy capacity additions when
required.
 Improved supply reliability and power management - With independence from utility
grid systems, distributed generation systems offer easy maintenance of power, voltage and
frequency. It also offers the possibility of combining energy storage and management
systems, with reduced congestion.
COGENERATION:

Cogeneration or Combined Heat and Power (CHP) is defined as the

sequential generation of two different forms of useful energy from a single primary
energy source, typically mechanical energy and thermal energy. Mechanical energy
may be used either to drive an alternator for producing electricity, or rotating
equipment such as motor, compressor, pump or fan for delivering various
services.
Thermal energy can be used either for direct process applications or for
indirectly producing steam, hot water, hot air for dryer or chilled water for process
cooling.

Cogeneration is also called as combined heat and power or combine heat and
power. As it name indicates cogeneration works on concept of producing two
different form of energy by using one single source of fuel. Out of these two forms
one must be heat or thermal energy and other one is either electrical or mechanical
energy.
Cogeneration is the most optimum, reliable, clean and efficient way of utilizing
fuel. The fuel used may be natural gas, oil, diesel, propane, wood, bassage, coal etc. It
works on very simple principle i.e the fuel is used to generate electricity and this
electricity produces heat and this heat is used to boil water to produce steam, for
space heating and even in cooling buildings.

Need for Cogeneration

 Cogeneration helps to improve the efficiency of the plant.
 Cogeneration reduce air emissions of particulate matter, nitrous oxides, sulphur
dioxide, mercury and carbon dioxide which would otherwise leads to
greenhouse effect.
 It reduces cost of production and improve productivity.
 Cogeneration system helps to save water consumption and water costs.
 Cogeneration system is more economical as compared to conventional power
plant.

Types of Cogeneration Power Plants

In a typical Combined heat and power plant system there is a steam or gas turbine which take steam
and drives an alternator. A waste heat exchanger is also installed in cogeneration plant, which
recovers the excess heat or exhaust gas from the electric generator to in turn generate steam or hot
water.
There are basically two types of cogeneration power plants, such as-
  Topping cycle power plant
 Bottoming cycle power plant

Topping Cycle Power Plant:

In this type of Combine Heat and Power plant electricity is generated first and
then waste or exhaust steam is used to heating water or building. There are basically
four types of topping cycles.
1 Combined-cycle topping CHP plant- In this type of plant the fuel is firstly
burnt in a steam boiler. The steam so produced in a boiler is used to drive
turbine and hence synchronous generator which in turn produces electrical
energy. The exhaust from this turbine can be either used to provide usable heat,
or can be send to a heat recovery system to generate steam, which maybe
further used to drive a secondary steam turbine.
2 Steam-turbine topping CHP Plant- In this the fuel is burned to produce steam,
which generates power. The exhaust steam is then used as low-pressure process
steam to heat water for various purposes.
3 Water turbine topping CHP Plant- In this type of CHP plant a jacket of cooling
water is run through a heat recovery system to generate steam or hot water for
space heating.
4 Gas turbine topping CHP plant- In This topping plant a natural gas fired turbine
is used to drives a synchronous generator to produce electricity. The exhaust
gas is sent to a heat recovery boiler where it is used to convert water into
steam, or to make usable heat for heating purposes.
Bottoming Cycle Power Plant
As its name indicate bottoming cycle is exactly opposite of topping cycle. In this type
of CHP plant the excess heat from a manufacturing process is used to generate steam,
and this steam is used for generating electrical energy. In this type of cycle no extra
fuel is required to produce electricity, as fuel is already burnt in production process.
Advantages of Cogeneration Systems:
Increased fuel efficiency
Cogeneration is known for its high efficiency levels, meaning less fuel is needed to create
similar levels of electricity and heat in comparison to other systems. This makes it a great eco-
friendly option for fuel optimization.

Reducing energy wastage

This is a big environmental plus – if waste is being used to power cogeneration systems, this
means less is going into our landfills.

Reduced energy costs

The more efficient a system is in creating electricity and heat, the lower your energy costs
are going to be – that seems like a big advantage of cogeneration.
Reduced greenhouse gas emissions
This is a big one – less greenhouse gases means a happier and healthier environment for all!

Reduced reliance on the grid

If you are using a CHP system that means you are not relying on a greater electricity grid,
meaning better energy security and you can run completely ‘off-grid’, or supplement higher energy
demands.

Limitations of Cogeneration Systems:

Not an intrinsic energy source
Although cogeneration is great at what it does, ultimately it is just used to make other
energy sources more efficient as opposed to being its own intrinsic energy source. This does not
however dampen its efficiency, it just means it is a vessel as opposed to its own energy provider.

Not suitable for everyone

Cogeneration is only applicable to areas that have a need for heating or cooling and
electricity, and when it comes to larger systems, their heating/electricity need must be in proportion
for maximum benefits (larger systems power heat all the time!).

Can be costly
Although cogeneration can save you money on your energy bills, the installation costs for
some systems can be quite high. The capital that is required may be hard for businesses looking at
smaller scale installations to handle and can be off putting if not looking at the full picture long
term.

Not always environmentally friendly

If cogeneration systems use renewable options like biogas as their primary fuels, they are an
environmentally friendly option for energy production. On the other side however, if a system is
using diesel or other fossil fuels as their fuel source than they are not an eco-friendly choice. This
counters the environmental benefits of cogeneration and outweighs some advantages.