Comments on the Article “Cogeneration Blueprint for State Facilities”

Two cogeneration professionals, both with many years of experience, have reviewed the preceding article—”The 1981 California Cogeneration Blueprint.”

Abstract

I found it amazing that the majority of the issues discussed in an
article written 20 years ago are still valid today.
In the preamble of the article it was stated that then Governor of
California E.G. Brown challenged utilities and industries to develop
6,000 MW of electricity in California during the 1980s, through cogen-
eration. I can add that in a 1982 letter the then Chairman of CEC (Cali-
fornia Energy Commission) C.R. Imbrecht echoed the Governor’s con-
cept, stating that “... it is estimated that as much as 4,000 megawatts of
electricity can be produced by cogeneration by the year 2002.”
Sure, some cogeneration plants were built in California. But with
the passage of time, significant changes were made to the original esti-
mates, due to reasons I’ll discuss later. The referenced article dealt with
state (of California) facilities. Based on a study prepared for the
Governor’s Cogeneration Task Force the authors estimated that of the
potential 700 MW identified for development at state facilities, 490 MW
of cogeneration were considered cost effective and could be developed
in the immediate future.
Now we regret that the challenges were not met, and the recom-
mendations were not implemented