In this politically partisan era, it’s refreshing to see the liberal Brookings Institution and the conservative Hoover Institution agree on something.  That something, in the wonky words of such policy reports is distributed power systems (DPS) have “the potential to make a significant positive contribution to the U.S. power system.” The report pays particular attention to combined heat and power, lamenting that CHP is “homeless”.

Probably the biggest barrier to clean energy development is the lack of markets. Utility monopolies traditionally blocked independent generators from competing with their own power plants, even if the utilities’ facilities were more expensive and polluting. Congress tackled this problem in 1978 with the passage of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) and many states responded with policies that launched aggressive growth of renewables and cogeneration. The concept was simple – clean energy projects should be able to compete with traditional generators and receive power purchase contracts equal to what a utility would pay to generate and deliver its own electricity.

A recent study by Oak Ridge National Laboratory finds efficiency, particularly combined heat and power (CHP), would make U.S. industry become more competitive as it also cuts manufacturers’ energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions. “The U.S. industrial sector,” state the researchers, “presents a large and significant opportunity to promote a clean energy economy.”

The Alliance for Industrial Efficiency recently submitted comments to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on its “Boiler MACT,” a set of rules to reduce hazardous air pollutants from the nation’s industrial boilers. (MACT stands for the “maximum available control technology” standards that must be met by these boilers.) The Alliance views the rules as an important means to enhance industrial efficiency, especially through the use of waste heat recovery (WHR) and combined heat and power (CHP) projects.

RED and the Alliance for Industrial Efficiency have submitted comments to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on how CHP and waste heat recovery (WHR) projects should be compensated for the reliability and stabilization benefits they provide to the electric grid.