Optimum sizing of investment in CHP plant for beverage-related processing industries

Abstract Using basic data for a specific brewery project, the sensitivity of discounted project net worth to capital costs and to fuel price relativities are explored. The precise balance of electricity demand to steam usage on the plant is another crucial factor and a number of marginal applications within the brewing and distilling sectors are likely to depend on the export value of surplus electricity to the national grid and the relative time-sequencing of plant demands. These demands are seen to be less severe than those associated with the interdependence of heat pump economics on supportive coactivation of other conservation techniques. Despite current decline of industrial CHP application in the UK, a widened choice of technological options with economic potential now exists and this is explored. New regulations governing the purchase of power by the CEGB are expected to contribute only marginally in the short term to economic viability of these private investments.