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Economic Effects of Distributed Generations

1. Simultaneous achievement of so-called "3E" goals, which means Energy security, Economic growth and Environment protection.
2. Desirable contribution to load leveling or peak-cut of load demand.
3. Advantages of distributed type generation system (emergency generation for a disaster, transmission loss reduction, efficient investment of transmission facilities).
4. Reduction of heating and lighting expenses of customers.

Environmental problems or load leveling like item 1 to 3 are very important. However, for the customers including us, the most anxious thing is the economic aspect of the distributed generation.

The goal of this study is to examine how much expenses can be reduced by installing distributed generators as cogeneration systems. The installation brings about various merits like energy cost cut-back but some demerits like installation and operation costs also appear. This trade-off relationship is formulated as an optimal operation problem and the most economical operation pattern can be obtained by solving it.