ENERGY
Getting a piece of the low
carbon CHP action
Cogeneration is gaining the ascendancy in terms of popularity stakes for businesses that want
to generate their own renewable energy. Why is this? Geraldine Faulkner reports.
D
espite the looming in technical facilities services and energy sites in the commercial and industrial sector
recession, life in the low management. and lastly schools, hospitals and civic buildings.
carbon tech world is not doom According to Nick Burchett, marketing and Well-known names include the supermarket
and gloom; especially not at communications manager with Dalkia: “some behemoth, tesco along with car manufacturers
the Cogeneration Company (Cogenco) in West years ago we realised we were missing part like Land Rover, BWM and Jaguar.
sussex, where visitors are mischievously offered of the market for modular units and Cogenco in total, the company has installed around
water ‘from peckham’ by director, Julian packer wanted to make better use of their products.” 200 units all over the world; from France to
in reference, of course, to the classic BBC series packer, who trained as a thermal power south Korea and from Romania to italy.
Only Fools and Horses. engineer before going on to obtain a phD in Added to which, the Chp specialist offers
But contrary to trotter’s independent combustion, takes up the story. clients a rather special after-sales service,
trading, packer’s company is doing very nicely, “in 2003 three other colleagues and myself namely its human machine interface (HMI).
thank you. led the MBO of Cogenco. We doubled the this comprises an internet-based, remote
But what is cogeneration all about? business from £5 million to a £10 million monitoring, protection control and monitoring
Cogeneration, also known as combined turnover in four years, and we knew that we system.
heat and power (Chp) is a system whereby needed further investment to sustain growth. “While other companies sub-contract their
a gas engine simultaneously generates both Dalkia’s approach was a very attractive one; maintenance services and run the risk of losing
electricity and heat. particularly as it was made not as a venture control over their teams, we use our own men in
But whereas conventional power plants emit capitalist who typically want a quick return, but the field. Most of them have been with us for a
heat as a by-product of electricity generation as someone who wanted to invest in the long long time,” explains packer.
into the atmosphere via cooling towers, flue gas term and with synergistic business aims. All in According to the director, the HMI is the
or other means, Cogenco’s Chp is a system that all, the acquisition by Dalkia was a very positive “brains” of the unit.
captures the by-product heat for commercial experience and good for both parties.” “What we do is error management,”
purposes close to the plant. Cogenco specialises in packaged Chp, explains Kevin Lawless, Cogenco’s service
Nor does it end there. i.e. Chp units that provide electrical output desk engineer. “every day we bring up
A step up from cogeneration is trigeneration requirements from 30kW to 2MW with heat basic information on our system by calling
where the heat generated by the Chp at the outputs from 60kW to 2.3MW “with elements up the units and interrogating them. there
warmer times of the year, can be used in you can fit in a box”, explains Packer (albeit a is an infinite amount of information to be
absorption chillers to generate chilled water for very large box for the bigger units). monitored. For example, we check the water
air conditioning. For example, Cogenco has a What about the gas that fuels the system? temperature at its various stages. if the client
trigen unit fitted in London’s Science Museum. “in the past most Cogenco Chp systems is a hotel, they will need to ensure there is
“Rather than escape up the chimney, the were fuelled by piped natural gas. Now in enough hot water for guests’ showers first
excess heat produced during the combustion response to the present climate, we supply thing in the morning. We work out daily
process can be used to provide hot water or systems powered by a range of biofuels. these trends, heat and electrical output.”
drive an absorption chiller for air conditioning,” include biogas (from anaerobic digestion), some clients install Chp units as a back-
explains packer. landfill gas, bioliquid,” says Burchett. up system.
so is Cogenco a newcomer on the Chp to this end Cogenco is establishing links “there are two units at sugar Quay in
landscape? with Veolia Water solutions who are one of London for its trading desk. One unit runs
Apparently not: the horsham-based the companies who use AD as a means of continuously while the other is there as a back-
company boasts a heritage of over 20 years treating waste. up. if the trading desk was to lose power, they
in the cogeneration market. And in terms of “One man’s waste is another man’s would be a bit annoyed.”
its Usp, what differentiates it from other Chp feedstock,” comments packer wryly. Customers phoning the Cogenco service
manufacturers is that it specialises in modular so who are Cogenco’s clients? desk get a qualified engineer to talk through the
Chp units. the company’s clients cover both the private problem.
Re-branded in 2004 from Nedalo (UK) and public sectors; from hotels and medium- “We analyse the data first before addressing
to Cogenco, the company now forms part of sized multi-occupancy developments to office the problem. it’s more than telling the client to
the Dalkia group of businesses, a specialist developments, supermarkets and manufacturing press the reset button,” adds Lawless.
26 SuStainable SolutionS December/January 2009
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