Track the performance of your CHP unit with PowerRadar™

So, you’ve deployed Combined Heat and Power (CHP) at your organisation – or you’re considering doing so. With great cost and carbon savings available, your investment has the potential to transform your energy estate. But how can you know whether it’s working to its fullest potential?

One way to ensure you’re getting the most out of your CHP unit is to track its performance with an energy management platform, like PowerRadar™. This powerful, cloud-based software could help you to visualise how your CHP fits into your energy strategy. Read on to find out how your business could benefit from tracking your CHP unit’s performance over time.

1. Track real-time energy generation and reduce grid reliance

Deploying CHP at your organisation can bring you a range of benefits. You can likely expect a strong return on investment, with great savings versus a conventional boiler. And, with several fuel options available (including up to 100% hydrogen CHP), you’ll be able to flex your unit in line with your pathway to net zero.

But if you’re not tracking the energy that your CHP unit is producing, it can be hard to quantify exactly how much difference it’s making to your business. Knowing how much heat and power you’re generating onsite is crucial to your energy strategy. In particular, tracking how much electricity your system generates could help you to transform your estate.

By monitoring your CHP’s power output, you’ll be able to pinpoint how much of your electricity demand it’s meeting. This can help you to re-evaluate your reliance on grid electricity supply. Grid power can come with high carbon emissions and, amid price volatility, can be unpredictably expensive. The more power you’re able to generate onsite, the less you’ll need to rely on grid supply. As such, you could reduce your bills and carbon emissions.

If you choose to track your CHP through PowerRadar, you’ll be able to visualise your electricity demand. From this, you’ll be able to identify how much you’re able to meet with onsite generation – and adjust your CHP management strategy accordingly. This could transform your energy estate, improving your business resilience as well as cutting costs and carbon.

2. Pinpoint opportunities to cut waste and simplify carbon reporting

The benefits of tracking your CHP unit’s performance don’t stop with reducing your reliance on the grid. With PowerRadar, you could also simplify your carbon reporting, helping you to measure your progress towards net zero.

PowerRadar offers a single, holistic view of your energy estate, including your CHP unit. From here, you can set up customised energy reporting. You can then tailor this to meet the needs of specific frameworks, or to provide data your senior stakeholders are looking for.

For example, you could include the information you need to take part in the Combined Heat and Power Quality Assurance programme (CHPQA):

• Fuel consumption
• Electricity generation
• Heat use

This can help you to assess the quality and efficiency of your CHP unit. Or, you may be looking to meet your obligations under specific carbon frameworks, like the Carbon Disclosure Project. By monitoring your CHP through PowerRadar, you can start to gather this information using a holistic view of your energy usage. This can help you to make data-led decisions on your energy strategy – helping you to stay accountable as you progress to a net zero future.

3. Stay on top of Operations & Maintenance (O&M)

Tracking your CHP and wider energy system can also help you to avoid unexpected service interruptions – and costly disruption to your business. We know that unplanned downtime could have devastating consequences for your organisation. But, by tracking wider system with PowerRadar, you could take steps to avoid this.

Combining sophisticated alerts with real-time analytics means that you’ll be up-to-date on any issues that may arise across your energy estate. This can help you to manage maintenance proactively instead of relying on reactive repairs. And as a result of this, you could avoid unplanned downtime for your business.

Furthermore, setting up alerts can help you to extend your CHP's lifetime. You could use PowerRadar's insights to identify opportunities to run your unit more efficiently. This could help you to reduce the impact of everyday wear-and-tear on your CHP unit, lengthening its anticipated lifetime. All this means that your system can provide you with cost and carbon savings for the long term.

Talk to our experts about optimising your CHP’s performance

If you’re looking to maximise your Combined Heat and Power (CHP) unit’s potential, or are considering deploying CHP, our experts can help.

We have over 35 years of experience deploying and managing CHP, and we've installed over 700MW of CHP worldwide. So, no matter your unique requirements, you’ll know that your CHP unit is in safe hands. Simply complete our form below to tell us more about your ambitions with Combined Heat and Power (CHP).