Outdated "wisdom" wastes the nation's electricity infrastructure. Distributed CH&P is the answer.
Gary Nakarado is distributed power policy lead at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and a former public utility commissioner. Holly Thomas works in distributed power systems division of the NREL. The views expressed herein are not necessarily those of NREl or the U.S. DOE.
The use of wasted heat-which now comprises two-thirds of the energy value of the fuels used in generat-ing electricity in this country-may be the most important benefit from using more distributed generation.
The 2001 Annual Energy Review, published by the Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration (EIA), camouflages the waste of the energy value contained in the fuels used to generate this nation's electricity. The camouflage occurs in the otherwise highly informative "Energy Flow 2001" diagram for electricity generation, reproduced with additional color coding on page 41.
As the diagram shows, by far the largest output of our nation's electricity generation infrastructure is in the form of so-called conversion losses. The EIA, a part of the U.S. Department of Energy, cites the laws of thermodynamics as the culprit for this egregious waste of resources. The real culprit, however, is the industry's century-old paradigm for building large, central generating stations and then transporting (albeit relatively efficiently, with suitable voltage transformation) the electricity over an expensive and complex transmission and distribution grid. That model remains the basis for how most regulators and utilities view the world. Increasingly, this view is shortsighted, wasteful and expensive.