Installations of Combined Heat and Power (CHP) applications, as well as other formsof Distributed Generation (DG) can yield substantial improvements in energy efficiency,electric reliability and environmental performance. Despite these and other benefits,economic factors and Wisconsin's regulatory climate in the electric industry have relegatedCHP/DG to a niche application. Unless the market forces and market barriers are understoodand strategically targeted at appropriate market niches, efforts to promote CHP/DG inWisconsin and similar markets will have limited effectiveness.Barriers to increasing CHP/DG penetration in Wisconsin are:1. Low-cost, reliable electricity,2. Balkanized interconnection requirements, and3. Stalled electric industry restructuring.Approaches were developed to address these barriers by targeting three distinctCHP/DG market areas of municipal utilities and their customers participating in Focus onEnergy, brownfield redevelopment sites, and sponsors of proposed large power plants.This project targeted the most promising market segments, to capitalize on CHP/DG'swider benefits through building partnerships among DOE, utilities, businesses and stateprograms such as Focus on Energy.This paper presents the findings and experiences in establishing and performingtechnical outreach to develop DG/CHP in these Wisconsin markets. Discussions of thedesign challenges, the development of opportunities, and experiences in the on-goingdelivery of the CHP/DG initiatives are discussed. The results of this program's experiencecan serve as a model in advancing CHP/DG in low-cost, regulated and challenging electricitymarkets.
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