The DER Niche Market

摘要

Electrical contractors working for utilities or interested in a growing niche market might do well to investigate opportunities in distributed energy resources (DER). They are parallel and stand-alone electric generation units located within the electric distribution system at or near the end-user. Various technologies are available for distributed generation, including turbine generators, internal combustion engine/generators, microturbines, photovoltaic/solar panels, wind turbines and fuel cells. DER can be beneficial to electricity consumers and, if the integration is properly engineered, the energy utility avoids or reduces the cost of transmission and distribution system upgrades. In addition to these quantified estimated benefits, utilities using distributed power obtain qualitative benefits by adding small generation capacity increments instead of large ones, by low capital investments, and by enjoying short lead times to construct a facility Other drivers include fuel efficiency and environmental gains.