Pitfalls of Cogeneration

Abstract

There are a number of pitfalls that will cause a cogeneration project
to be unsuccessful. If success is measured in a project’s ability to meet
the proforma expectations in overall utility savings and return on in-
vestment, then anything less than that will render a project
unsuccessful. However, partial success still may be acceptable. For in-
stance, if a project pencils out to have a return on investment of 35% and
attains only a 28% savings overall, that project still returns greater than
normal returns compared to other investments and can be deemed suc-
cessful, even if it does not meet initial expectations. Hence, the primary
concern is when a project fails abjectly. When the returns are consider-
ably less than what can be earned in conservative investments, then the
project would be said to have failed.