Cogeneration with natural gas fired internal combustion engines: Italian utility's 10 years operating experience

This paper describes the experience that AGAC, an Italian gas and water utility, has acquired in the operation of a 116 Km long district heating network serving about 40,000 inhabitants. The network is powered by a mix of methane fuelled Otto and diesel cycle engines, coal fired fluidized bed boilers, and methane fired boilers producing annually about 153,000 kW of thermal energy, 2,300 kW of cooling energy, and 28.8 million kWh of electric power. This paper reports on the performance of this system in terms of production and sales trends, equipment efficiency and compatibility with new European Communities air pollution standards