The Combined Heat & Power Conference, organised in partnership with Gas Networks Ireland, took place on Thursday 5th March 2020 at the Gibson Hotel, Dublin.
Over 200 delegates came together to discuss how CHP can benefit their organisation and the potential cost and environmental savings CHP can deliver. The agenda also included practical case studies from real life projects in both the public and private sectors and delegates also had the opportunity to meet with suppliers and consultants who advised on suitable solutions for their organisation.
A massive thank you to all the speakers who made the event a huge success and to all our delegates who attended.
✔ Significant reduction in energy cost
✔ Short project payback times achievable
✔ CO2 emissions reduced
✔ Lower carbon tax
✔ Security and continuity of power supply
✔ Conservation of valuable fuel resources
✔ NZEB compliance
Due to potential inefficiencies in centralised electricity generation and transportation, plus the resulting cost of electricity from energy suppliers, significant financial savings can be made by generating electricity on site to meet local requirements. Using co-generation to provide both heat and electricity on site allows a business to reduce overall energy costs resulting in a significant competitive and productivity advantage.
In conventional centralised electricity generation, much of the input energy (over 50%) is lost to the atmosphere as waste heat. Distributed electricity generation, through the installation of suitably designed CHP systems, makes use of almost all of the heat generated in the generation process locally – in 2017 the useful heat output was estimated at 99% of the total heat generated by CHP plants. The efficiency of a CHP plant can exceed 90% if designed and installed correctly, and is typically 20-25% higher than the combined efficiency of heat-only boilers and conventional power stations. The use of CHP in 2017 avoided 423,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions when compared with conventional electricity and heat production.
CHP therefore has the potential to be an economic means of improving the efficiency of energy supply, as well as, achieving environmental targets for emissions reductions, which is becoming an increasingly important consideration for all businesses.
Gas Networks Ireland, together with its parent company Ervia, published “Vision 2050 – a Net Zero Carbon Gas Network for Ireland” in October 2019. The vision sets out how through a combination of technologies and initiatives the gas network can reduce Ireland’s total carbon emissions by one third and create a net zero carbon gas network.
Renewable gas entered the gas network for the first time in 2019, it is a clean, renewable and carbon-neutral fuel, which can significantly improve the sustainability of the natural gas network and reduce dependency on imported natural gas. Renewable gas has the potential to further improve the environmental benefits offered by gas-fired CHP applications.