Institutional and Government Facilities
 Tecogen cogeneration and cooling CHP products are a proven way for government and institutional facilities to reduce their operating costs and carbon footprints significantly, and maximize overall efficiency.
Institutional and government facilities are often large with around-the-clock operations, steady thermal and electric requirements, and central plants. This makes them ideal candidates for CHP. Best applications include government buildings, jails and detention facilities, data centers, schools and universities, hospitals, aquariums, district heating and cooling systems, public housing, municipal pools, ice rinks, and recreation centers.
The “Microgrid” feature of Tecogen’s InVerde product is particularly valued in institutional and governmental facilities, because it can be easily configured to provide power during an outage, keeping key services operating until the utility grid is restored.
Economic Benefits
Operating savings to a government or institutional facility can be over 50%, year after year. Tecogen systems can help attentive government and institution administrators squeeze the most value out of limited budgets. Tecogen would be happy to provide a detailed free economic analysis, to help you estimate the savings at your particular facility.
System Options
Tecogen will help an institutional or governmental facility determine which type of CHP system makes the most sense.
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 Cogeneration – Either a Tecogen induction generator-based or inverter-based cogeneration system can generate electricity that reduces a facility’s electrical bill significantly. At the same time, free waste heat can be recovered from the cogeneration system and used to offset fuel that would otherwise have to be burned in the facility’s water or pool heaters. This makes the school’s gas bill for space heating, domestic hot water (DHW, for locker rooms and dormitories), and pool heating go down, too. Alternatively, this free cogen waste heat can be used to drive an absorption chiller, which makes cooling from waste heat. This can relieve the facility’s other chillers from having to do as much of the facility’s air conditioning.
A Tecogen InVerde module can be operated independent of the grid for extended periods during power outages, keeping some or even all of the governmental or institutoinal facility’s services operating for extended periods. The patented “Microgrid” operating software allows multiple InVerde modules to operate harmoniously without any specialized external controls or field balancing.
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Chiller – A Tecochill chiller, by comparison, provides cost-effective chilled water directly, for a governmental or institutional facility’s chilled water loop. It makes needed chilled water without using expensive on-peak electricity, which greatly reduces the facility’s electric bill. At some governmental or institutional facilities, free waste heat available from the engine(s) on the chiller can also be utilized, to satisfy simultaneous hot water requirements, such as for domestic hot water (DHW), space heating, or pool heating.
Tecochill chiller systems require very little electric power, so are ideally suited for keeping governmental and institutional facilities cool when the utility power has failed. In these applications, the building’s existing backup power sources need only supply electricity for the chiller’s controls and ancillary equipment, rather than for the entire chiller.
Environmental Benefits
 Efficient Tecogen CHP systems can help a governmental or institutional facility reduce its Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions (CO2 output, or “carbon footprint”) by as much as 50%.
Tecogen CHP systems are a good way for government or institutions to “go green”, but in a practical, sensible way. Tecogen systems reduce global warming emissions, while achieving decent paybacks on their own. Tecogen CHP systems do not rely extensively on massive government incentives and tax benefits, like some other “green” measures do. Tecogen systems are an efficient and responsible investment of taxpayer dollars.
Educational Benefits
 Tecogen systems can even provide educational benefits in governmental and institutional facilities. The technology itself can be closely monitored and studied. A system’s environmental and economic benefits can be quantified and tracked by operating staff and administrators alike, on a “real-time” basis. With Tecogen CHP, government and institutional facilities can be justifiably proud of their green accomplishments.
Please check out our list of cogen and chiller case studies and find out how facilities similar to yours are benefitting from Tecogen.
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