Micro Grid & Combined Cooling, Heat and Power Systems
ESSENTIAL UTILITIES | 20/20 CAPITAL GROUP | PJ DICK | LLI ENGINEERING | PENNONI
Micro Grid & Combined Cooling, Heat and Power Systems Most companies get their power from the grid — and if the grid goes down, they’re forced to rely on back-up power. But, what if you could produce your own electricity right on site and save money doing it? From airports to universities to hospitals to hotels, micro grid and combined cooling, heat and power systems (CCHP) allow you to produce electricity and heat right at your facility, giving you flexibility and reliability. CCHP systems consume about half of the fuel that a central power station uses while still providing the same amount of energy. Plus, conventional methods of producing heat and power separately are only about 45% efficient, and waste heat produced at power plants is just that — wasted heat. Instead, by producing electricity on site and recycling waste heat, micro grid & CCHP systems can be up to twice as efficient as conventional heat and power generation. There are multiple configurations of CCHP systems, including: •
Reciprocal CCHP: A reciprocal gas engine, driving electric motors.
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Turbine CCHP: A gas turbine engine, driving electric motors.
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Trigen CCHP: A gas engine, driving electric motors with absorption chillers.
BENEFITS OF CCHP
What is CCHP? CCHP, also known as cogeneration, describes a suite of technologies that can use a variety of fuels to generate both electricity and usable thermal energy (heat). This proven technology has been utilized for more than a century, often by commercial and industrial facilities with demand for both electricity and heat.
Clean and efficient
Benefits of CCHP CCHP is an energy-efficient technology that typically uses natural gas to generate electricity and captures the heat that would otherwise be wasted to provide useful thermal energy for space heating, cooling, hot water, and industrial processes. CCHP systems offer your facility an innovative way to: • • •
Save energy Lower costs Help the environment
Lower energy costs
Reliable power
CCHP systems help facilities turn typically wasted heat into useful electricity and thermal energy, which can be used for: • • • • •
Space heating Cooling Domestic hot water heating Dehumidification Process heating
Strong resilience
Greater energy efficiency
Efficiencies
EFFICIENT
RELIABLE
SUSTAINABLE
CCHP systems can lower your operational costs as they operate at up to 80% efficiency, whereas conventional heat and power systems have a combined efficiency of 45%.
If you’re relying on the grid, you’re only as strong as your back-up generators. A CCHP system gives you a whole extra layer of resilience— ensuring your business doesn’t miss a beat.
Using a CCHP system can reduce your carbon footprint and cut your CO2 production in half. It also does not produce fly ash as it virtually eliminates water consumption for energy purposes.
CCHP systems are flexible and can be the sole source of heat and power for a business or can be integrated with existing systems and equipment. CCHP systems provide unrivaled efficiency by generating electricity, hot water, and even cold water at your location, avoiding transmission line loss from a power plant.
What We Build The Peoples, 20/20 Capital Group, LLI, PJ Dick, and Pennoni partnership provides a seamless long-term finance, design, build, and operate solution for CCHP solutions.
Essential / Peoples is one of the country’s largest publicly traded natural gas providers. Founded in 1885 and headquartered in Pittsburgh, Peoples has 17,700 miles of distribution, gathering, and transmission pipelines and is connected to Pennsylvania produced gas with 8,000 direct interconnects with conventional and unconventional wells, making it one of the lowest gas cost providers.
20/20 Capital Group is a consultative investment banking and project finance firm, specializing in developing, modeling, and financing projects in and around the energy, water, communications, and utility industries. 20/20 has an established track record of identifying strategic and financial partners for distributed generation projects, such as CCHP.
LLI Engineering has been consistently recognized for providing top-quality engineering design services. Located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, LLI Engineering has completed projects in over 20 different states. The firm specializes in critical facilities, infrastructure, green building design, and energy efficiency.
PJ Dick Industrial has provided construction services to industrial and infrastructure clients in the Mid-Atlantic region for decades. Our services include site development, concrete structures, major utilities, structural steel, building structures, process piping, and balance of plant, to name a few.
Pennoni is a multi-disciplinary engineering firms with expertise in energy management and industrial projects. Over the past 50 years, Pennoni has collaborated with owners to identify smart, sustainable and resilient solutions.
Pittsburgh International Airport Microgrid Pittsburgh, PA, $26 million Peoples, 20/20 Capital, LLI Engineering, and PJ Dick provided design-build services for a microgrid project pairing natural gas with solar power at Pittsburgh International Airport. This CCHP and solar installation will be the primary source of electricity for the property by the summer of 2021. The microgrid is powered by five natural gas-fired generators with a total capacity of about 20 MW and about 7,800 solar panels with a total capacity of 2.5 MW on airport owned land. This makes Pittsburgh International Airport the world’s most resilient facility of its kind.
— Tom Woodrow Vice President of Engineering Pittsburgh International Airport
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This project is about improving public safety through resilience and redundancy in electrical power. The project was initiated in mid-2017 and as the concept unfolded in the wake of some major power outages at other airports, we moved full steam ahead in early 2018 to develop a microgrid.
Pittsburgh International Airport built a first-of-its-kind microgrid Pittsburgh International Airport is powered byanatural gas andmicrogrid building first-of-its-kind solar, providing greater powered by natural gaspower and solar, reliability, public ensuringenhancing greater power reliability, enhancing public safety safety, and creating cost and creatin cost efficiencies. efficiencies.
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Three forms of electric generation ensure reliability.
Traditional Electrical Grid Connected to the traditional electric grid for backup power.
Supplied from airport property
Solar Power Integration A peak of 2.5 megawatts of electricity will be generated from solar (equivalent to 333 residential homes) with no emissions.
Natural Gas Powered Electric Generators Natural gas generators create approximately 20 megawatts of electricity (equivalent to 13,333 typical residential homes).
Natural Gas Supply Peoples’ distribution pipelines, natural gas transmission pipelines and on-site production feeds the natural gas generators. Three forms of supply provide redundancy and ensure reliability.
AHN Wexford Hospital CCHP Wexford, PA, $18 million Peoples, 20/20 Capital Group, LLI Engineering, and PJ Dick provided general contractor services for the construction of a new 18,000-sf, pre-cast building. The CCHP project included the supply and installation of fire protection, plumbing, heating, air conditioning, ventilation and electrical work, 2-MW generator and two 1.5-MW diesel backup generators. A partnership between Allegheny Health Network (AHN) and Peoples put a high-tech, sustainable gas-fired power generating station at AHN Wexford Hospital, which is scheduled to open in 2021. The CCHP system, contained within a two-story, 18,000-square-foot building, provides up to 2MW of electricity plus hot water, chilled water and steam, enough to meet the needs of not only the hospital but also most of the AHN Health+Wellness Pavilion. The CCHP unit creates power and the other heating and cooling needs for the hospital, which will have about 160 beds plus operating rooms and a full maternity unit. Also included is Peoples’ expertise in running and maintaining CCHP system. The energy saved by this plant is the equivalent of removing 3,500 cars from the highways per year.
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— Dr. Allan Klapper, President AHN Wexford Hospital
It’s a plant that does everything from electricity generation to providing steam and chilled water for all the heating and cooling and power needs of the hospital.
— Jeffrey Nehr VP of Business Development Peoples Natural Gas
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They provide state-of-the-art energy efficient solutions for our building while partnering with experts who can provide the maintenance expertise needed to ensure optimal function. Being able to produce excess generation of energy that you can sell back to the grid is interesting and provides opportunities as well.
AHN Wexford CCHP Project Financing Essential/Peoples is financing and will own and operate the CCHP facility at Wexford Hospital as part of a 20-year Energy Services Agreement (ESA) to provide electricity, steam, and chilled water to the hospital, thereby allowing AHN to avoid incurring the capital cost required for the energy facility. Through the ESA agreement, Peoples will collect an annual fixed charge to allow for the cost of its capital, as well as passthrough charges for the operations and maintenance (parts and labor) and fuel (natural gas) for the plant. The total cost of the project was reduced by 10% through the receipt of a state-funded Alternative and Clean Energy (ACE) grant in the amount of approximately $1.8M.
To learn more about CCHP systems and the AHN Wexford project, click the QR code below or photograph it with your mobile device to watch a video.
Additionally, the owner installing the CCHP system is eligible to receive the Investment Tax Credit (a tax credit for 10% of the CCHP’s cost) and accelerated depreciation tax benefits. By structuring the ESA agreement so that a tax paying entity owns the plant, these tax benefits can be utilized and shared between AHN Wexford (a not for profit entity) and Peoples. In total, by entering into the ESA agreement with Peoples, AHN Wexford will save approximately $15.8M (19.3%) on its energy costs over the next 20 years, which, for comparative purposes, is almost 6% of the entire hospital’s total construction cost, of $275M.
Safety Everything we build begins with a foundation of safety. Our team’s award-winning safety program, developed by PJ Dick, complies with our owners’ most stringent of safety policies, including work for major oil and gas clients, industrial clients, and healthcare owners. In 2018, the Association of General Contractors GC recognized PJ Dick for having the top construction company safety program nationwide. In 2019 and 2020, the MBA recognized a PJ Dick superintendent as the top construction safety advocate in Western Pennsylvania. We are a Goal Zero organization. Our safety goal for your project is based upon our corporate standard – no recordables, no lost workday, no injuries... ever. In addition to following our MY SAFETY program, we proactively developed a supplemental plan to prevent exposure of our workers to COVID-19. We will continue to adapt this plan as restrictions change. We are proactive, adaptable and care about keeping our customers’ sites safe.
TO LEARN MORE, CONTACT US TODAY!
JEFFREY NEHR Vice President of Business Development 800.764.0111 jeffrey.s.nehr@peoples-gas.com
JOHN ROBINSON Executive Director, Development 412.807.2236 john.robinson@pjdick.com
THOMAS A. HURKMANS Chief Executive Officer 412.736.7978 tom.hurkmans@2020capitalgroup.com
JAMIE WHITE President 401.904.4310 jwhite@lliengineering.com
JONATHAN SAVAGE Vice President 609.273.2616 jsavage@pennoni.com