P art-Load Cogeneration Technology Meets Chilled Water and Steam Requirements

Abstract

Louisiana State University's Energy Savings Performance Con-tract with CESfWay was a groundbreaking project that applied part-load cogeneration technology to a large university campus to meetchilled water and steam requirements for expansion needs. Simulta-neously , the project provided these utilities at no additional out ofpocket cost to the institution by using the innovative financingmechanism of performance contracting, in which project savings pa yfor the investment.In addition , the work is performed via a cogeneration s ystemoperating most of the year at part-load. This mechanical cogenerationproject could also be termed a "thermal cogeneration" project, as itpro vides a dual thermal benefit from a single input energy source.Not only did the project achieve the projected energ y sa vings,but the sa vings proved to be so dependable that the Universit y optedfor an early bu yout of the project from CES/Way in 1994, after onl yabout two years of documented savings.