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Application Areas (Distributed Energy Resources)
Distributed Generation (DG) power generating technologies
are utilized by energy consumers at the point of use to
meet their power requirements. DG has gained increased
attention and use in recent years due to widely publicized
power outages in California in 2001, and several similar
situations in other areas (including the Ohio to New York
blackout in 2003), and due to the increasing need for end
customers to ensure high quality and availability of electric
power.
Distribution
The electric utility business has historically
consisted of centralized, large-scale power plants, supplying
electric power to load centers such as cities and industries
through a power transmission and distribution network. A
number of independent and government studies have shown this
centralized grid to be unsustainable in the long term, and
prone to inefficiency, failures, and other weaknesses.
Distributed Generation is an emerging, decentralized
alternative to the centralized power grid. DG offers the
combined benefits of greater reliability and availability for
end customers allowing for more efficient energy resource
usage, more security and lower transmission and distribution
losses for the electric grid as a whole. These benefits of
distributed energy resources, when combined with energy
management and storage systems on site, can result in improved
performance of the electric delivery system, both grid connected
and isolated. Distributed resources consist of several types of
energy technologies, which are categorized below.
Commercial energy technologies include:
- IC engines
- Gas turbines
- Back pressure steam turbines
- Microturbines
- Energy storage technologies
Renewable energy technologies include:
- Fuel cells
- Solar photovoltaics
- Wind
- Wave Energy
DG key words
Benefits for End-Users
Copyright 2005 Solectria Renewables LLC. All rights reserved.
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