Cogeneration

Cogeneration is the simultaneous production of electricity or mechanical power and useful heat from one energy source. It uses heat that conventional power generation would often discard.

Combined heat and power: A system that generates electricity or mechanical power while recovering useful heat from the same energy source. This is the standard engineering name for cogeneration systems.
Industrial cogeneration: Cogeneration systems that supply electricity and process heat to industrial facilities. Factories often have steady, simultaneous demand for power and steam.
Condensing power plant: A thermal power plant that condenses turbine exhaust steam and rejects its heat rather than supplying it for use. It illustrates the heat losses cogeneration is designed to reduce.
First law of thermodynamics: The principle that energy is conserved, changing forms but not being created or destroyed. It frames cogeneration as recovering energy flows, not creating extra energy.
Steam turbine: A rotary engine that extracts energy from pressurized steam to produce mechanical work. Steam turbines can generate electricity while their exhaust steam supplies process heat.
District heating: A system that distributes heat from centralized sources to multiple buildings through a network. District heating can absorb cogenerated heat from plants serving urban areas.
Separate heat and power: The separate production of electricity at a power plant and heat in local boilers or furnaces. This conventional arrangement is the benchmark for assessing cogeneration's fuel savings.
Carbon intensity: The greenhouse-gas emissions associated with a unit of energy, output, or activity. Cogeneration's emissions advantage depends on its fuel and the displaced alternatives.
Back-pressure steam turbine: A steam turbine that exhausts steam at a pressure high enough for direct heating or industrial use. Its useful exhaust heat is central to many cogeneration plants.
Combined cycle power plant: A power plant that combines gas and steam turbines to generate electricity from the same fuel. It boosts electrical output, but is not cogeneration unless useful heat is also supplied.

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