Combined Heat and Power

The simultaneous generation of power and heat in one plant is called combined heat and power (CHP) generation or cogeneration. Compared to separate production of heat and power in conventional power plants and individual heating systems, CHP units achieve an up to 40 percent higher efficiency. There are large and small plants operating on the CHP principle.

CHP units supply the heat that is uncoupled in the electricity generation process to the customers through district heating pipelines. With more than 1,500 kilometres, Berlin has the largest district heating network in Western Europe. In recent years, technological improvement and government initiatives to extend the use of combined heat and power have led to increasing numbers of decentralised, small CHP units.

Power from the neighborhood

These engines with outputs below one MWel can extremely efficiently supply heat and power to individual properties or production facilities. Meanwhile, numerous manufacturers offer compact mini-CHP and micro-CHP units in the output range below 50 kWel for use in multi-family houses or service industry buildings. CHP units work efficiently and economically if heat demand is sufficiently high throughout the year.

Power for the neighborhood

Operators can feed the electricity generated by the CHP unit into the local grid and receive a CHP bonus in addition to the current electricity price fixed at the energy exchange but they can also sell it directly in the property. The Berliner Energieagentur has specialised in supplying mini-CHP units for residential, service industry and office buildings. We finance, plan, install and operate the plants at our own economic risk.

We either integrate the CHP unit into an existing central heating system (additional provision model) or replace out-dated heating systems and install a completely new energy centre including CHP unit in the building (full contracting).