What is a cogeneration facility?
It’s a facility that, in Northwestern’s case, will generate electricity and steam from the same fuel input. Currently, we only generate steam at our utility plants and we buy electricity from ComEd. In the process of generating electric power at electric utility plants, there is excess heat produced that is generally wasted. In cogeneration, we’ll burn natural gas to generate steam and run the steam through a turbine that spins to create electricity. At the end of the turbine, the waste heat (as steam) will be supplementally fired and distributed through steam pipes to heat the campus. We’ll be generating two energy commodities from one fuel input, thereby getting more bang for our buck. We’ll be able to lower our costs and minimize the amount of pollution generated to meet our heating and electricity needs. What is an example of an environmental sustainability effort at Northwestern? The Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center is a good example. One thing we’ve done is to install
