Distributed generation: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 05:25, 22 November 2023

Revision as of 23:42, 28 November 2023

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== Overview ==

Historically, central plants have been an integral part of the electric grid, in which large generating facilities are specifically located either close to resources or otherwise located far from populated [[Distribution board|load centers]]. These, in turn, supply the traditional transmission and distribution (T&D) grid that distributes bulk power to load centers and from there to consumers. These were developed when the costs of transporting fuel and integrating generating technologies into populated areas far exceeded the cost of developing T&D facilities and tariffs. Central plants are usually designed to take advantage of available economies of scale in a site-specific manner, and are built as "one-off,", custom projects.

These [[economies of scale]] began to fail in the late 1960s and, by the start of the 21st century, Central Plants could arguably no longer deliver competitively cheap and reliable electricity to more remote customers through the grid, because the plants had come to cost less than the grid and had become so reliable that nearly all power failures originated in the grid. {{Citation needed|date=February 2012}} Thus, the grid had become the main driver of remote customers’ power costs and power quality problems, which became more acute as digital equipment required extremely reliable electricity.<ref name="DOE 2007">DOE; The Potential Benefits of Distributed Generation and Rate-Related Issues that May Impede Their Expansion; 2007.</ref><ref>Lovins; Small Is Profitable: The Hidden Economic Benefits of Making Electrical Resources the Right Size; Rocky Mountain Institute, 2002.</ref> Efficiency gains no longer come from increasing generating capacity, but from smaller units located closer to sites of demand.<ref>Takahashi, et al; Policy Options to Support Distributed Resources; U. of Del., Ctr. for Energy & Env. Policy; 2005.</ref><ref>Hirsch; 1989; cited in DOE, 2007.</ref>