Economic potential of natural gas-fired cogeneration in Brazil: two case studies

Recent restructuring of Brazil's power sector, allied to the expected large r share of natural gas in the nation's grid and the cost reductions of gas- fired power generation technologies, has introduced a set of situations app arently favorable to the expansion of natural gas-fired cogeneration. Howev er, electricity self-generation applications are restricted to specific cas es in Brazil. In order to deal with this issue, the COGEN model was develop ed to assess the economic potential of cogeneration ventures from the stand point of the investor and guide incentive public policies. This model has b een applied to two cases in Brazil - a chemical plant and a shopping mall - showing that the highest economic potential for gas-fired cogeneration in Brazil is found in industrial plants faced with high values of loss of load . In the commercial sector, measures reshaping the load curve of enterprise s - such as cold storage - might be much more interesting than fired cogene ration. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.