What is Distributed Power Generation?
In the industrialized world, electric power has traditionally been generated in large centralized power plants and delivered to consumers through an extensive transmission infrastructure. Generally owned by large utility companies operating under government regulatory oversight, this centralized system is designed to supply energy where needed as loads vary throughout the day. It offers advantages such as economies of scale, shared utilization of costly generation facilities, and centralized control. However, these advantages are countered by power losses (inefficiency) in long distance transmission; enormous cost of construction, operation and maintenance; and vulnerabilities now becoming more evident in the grid infrastructure.
The power generation industry is undergoing dramatic change. Recent high-profile power outages and admitted vulnerability to terrorism have heightened industry concerns over the long term viability of centralized power. Problems related to the grid system—blackouts, brownouts and interruptions—have cost U.S. industry billions of dollars in lost data, material and productivity. Major blackouts caused by system failures and natural disasters in the U.S., Japan, Chile, Haiti, China, Italy and Mexico draw attention to aging infrastructure and lack of adequate backup. Frequent localized blackouts and brownouts caused by wind, lightning, damaged utility poles, and other factors reveal the shortcomings of continuing to rely solely on centralized power. In California, rolling blackouts resulting from deregulation underscore the real and potential losses to businesses and industries when the lights suddenly go out.
Distributed power generation systems are fundamentally different from these centralized technologies. Distributed power generation consists of small-scale power generation facilities located in close proximity to the consumers of that power. Each facility provides power to meet local demand. Distributed power generation sidesteps the enormous cost of constructing and operating large, centralized power plants and the inefficiencies of long distance transmission lines. The technology permits quick installation and start-up at lower capital costs for each increment of increased generation capacity. It also address the challenge of increased regulatory pressures that can delay or even prevent construction of those new plants.
Generator sets powered by reciprocating engines account for the lion’s share of distributed power generation worldwide, supplying about 85% of demand. They are the least expensive of all fuel driven distributed technologies and, with recent advances in engine efficiency and emissions control, they are the fastest growing segment as well. Reciprocating engine gensets range up to 30 megawatts of power, but nearly 60% of all gensets sold worldwide are within the .5 to 1.0 megawatt power range—a market precisely met by the Genesis 1000™.