Cornell is planning a Combined Heat and Power project as a renewal and upgrade at its central heating plant, the heart of its international award winning campus district heating system. Referred to as the Cornell Combined Heat and Power Project (CCHPP), it will add new state of the art equipment that produces electricity and heat together with significantly less energy than making them separately. It will complement the existing highly efficient campus cogeneration and hydroelectric facilities, and the lower total energy input will result in associated reductions in environmental emissions on campus and within the state.
About the CHP project
The Combined Heat and Power project will add two gas turbine generators, totaling a nominal 30,000 kilowatts of electrical output, with heat recovery steam generators at the current central heating plant . (Here's how it works). The gas turbines will combust natural gas to turn large electric generators. Exhaust (waste) heat leaving the gas turbines will then provide the heat energy to produce steam for campus needs. The new equipment will be housed in an approximately 15,000 square foot addition south of the existing CHP on Rt. 366.
Why Combined Heat and Power?
Five factors dictate the need for the project: renewal is required to replace one aging steam generator; steaming capacity is needed to meet load additions; greater fuel flexibility is needed; highly efficient electricity generation can help control cost and environmental emissions; and lower emissions are desired to help strive cost effectively toward Kyoto and sustainability goals. All of these factors together with the proposed project, provide the University with an opportunity to both meet its needs and reduce the use of energy and associated emissions to run the campus.
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