Wednesday 23 January 2008

EON partner with EC Power micro CHP

You may have seen the news that E.ON have signed a deal with EC Power to distribute their micro CHP products in the UK. This rather confusing announcement is due to the number of definitions of "micro CHP" floating around.
Micro CHP is an MG (Micro Generation) technology and thus falls within the EU definition of MG which includes anything below 50kWe (for electrical generating technologies) or 45kWt (for heat producing technologies).

Nobody seems very clear about whether this is an "either/or" definition for CHP technologies. Various alternative definitions seek to clarify the situation, including one from the Carbon Trust who categorise what used to be called "micro CHP" as "domestic micro CHP" including only packaged units designed for individual homes, whilst "commercial micro CHP" comprises an assembly of ancillary components such as boilers, heat exchangers etc in a plant room configuration. The EC Power unit, at 15kWe electrical output, is clearly in the latter category, although I would tend to refer to it as "mini CHP".

Whatever the definition, it is good news that E.ON, a major energy company, has set up a deal with EC Power (incidentally a subsidiary of Norwegian oil and gas giant StatoilHydro) and their gas-fired mini CHP technology is being successfully installed in sheltered housing, schools and offices where it provides an excellent payback due to its very flexible operation which allows it to track either electrical or thermal demand.

For more information on the EC Power product range click here.
For more information on other micro CHP products and micro CHP generally, click here

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