Westinghouse Combustion Turbine Systems Division - Combined Cycle Cogeneration

Combined Cycle Cogeneration

Another marketing approach pursued by CTSD was cogeneration, which involved selling large gas turbines to major industrial facilities. The facility could use the gas turbine to generate its own electricity, and transfer heat from the exhaust gases to a boiler to produce steam to run a near-by steam turbine for additional power. Or, the steam could be used directly within the facility for various production processes. This concept, also known as combined cycle cogeneration, became attractive once private industries were freed from having to buy all their power from the local utility, and the utility was required, by law, to buy excess power from private generation facilities.

As described in Company marketing literature, "producing power on site makes an industry more energy self-sufficient. And, if more power is produced than is needed, the excess can be sold to a local utility for added revenue." For the utility's part, cogeneration is an opportunity for it to participate in energy planning with its industrial customers. "Joint ownership of a cogeneration facility can open the door to substantial savings for both parties. And, cogeneration is a way for a utility to delay construction of costly new generating capacity." (Ref 2)