This paper illustrates the use of a public domain digital simulation to evaluate performance of two cogeneration systems for a small university campus. The simulation used a full year of hourly steam and electric load data, along with hourly weather data, to determine the combined effects of energy demands and climatic variation on system performance. Neither the gas turbine based system or the IC engine based system was capable of meeting the desired PURPA efficiency of 42.5%. The simulation proved valuable in providing the capability to identify a control mode for the waste heat recovery chiller that resulted in an 18.7% improvement in efficiency of the IC engine concept.

Units: Dual