Evaluation Tools

This section contains information and/or links to checklists, electronic spreadsheets and software available for facilitating data collection and analyses, and evaluating the economics of CHP systems.

Is my facility a good candidate for CHP?

If you answer“yes to 3 or more of these of the following questions, your facility may be good candidate for CHP:

• Do you pay more than $.06/ kWh on average for electricity (including generation, transmission and distribution)?
• Are you concerned about the impact of current or future energy costs on your business?
• Is your facility located in a deregulated electricity market?
• Are you concerned about power reliability? Is there a substantial financial impact to your business if the power goes out for 1 hour? For 5 minutes?
• Does your facility operate for more than 5000 hours/ year?
• Do you have thermal loads throughout the year (including steam, hot water, chilled water, hot air, etc.)?
• Does your facility have an existing central plant?
• Do you expect to replace, upgrade or retrofit central plant equipment within the next 3-5 years?
• Do you anticipate a facility expansion or new construction project within the next 3-5 years?
• Have you already implemented energy efficiency measures and still have high energy costs?
• Are you interested in reducing your facility's impact on the environment?

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How much will CHP save me?

To estimate how much you can save, you should collect the information noted in the following checklist and then use one of the two models noted to estimate project cost and savings.

• A Walkthrough Checklist for Gathering Information for Performing Preliminary Economic Assessment of a CHP System for a Facility Download - 66Kb (Microsft Excel format)

• Spreadsheet for Evaluating Economics of CHP Systems Download - 401Kb (Microsoft Excel format)

• BCHP Screening Tool (Free –demonstration version is available from Oak Ridge National Laboratory –- Contact Steve Fischer: fischersk@ornl.gov; (865) 574-2017)

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Have you asked all the right questions?

Review this important factsheet (pdf) to avoid project difficulties later.

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Additional Software Tools

There are several additional software tools available for evaluating the economics of CHP systems. Many consulting firms and energy service companies offer services in this area. If you choose to do the analysis in-house, you may want to consider one of the software tools recently surveyed by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. A full version of that survey is provided here (pdf 2,895 Kb). The list (alphabetical) of software tools surveyed (and their costs) is as follows:

• Building Energy Analyzer ($780)
• Cogen Ready Reckoner (Free)
• D-Gen Pro ($675)
• GT Pro ($7,000)
• Heatmap CHP ($4,000)
• Plant Design Expert ($3,000)
• RECIPRO ($1,500)
• SOAPP-CT.25 ($7,500)

Click on the software tool name to obtain specific information from the ORNL survey.

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