Economic potential of natural gas fired cogeneration plants at malls in Rio de Janeiro

Brazil's power sector reforms are encouraging private investments in the ex pansion of installed power capacity. Also, natural gas fired thermopower te chnologies are becoming increasingly important, as they offer faster return s on investment. However. a series of institutional and tariff barriers sti ll block implementation of gas fired cogeneration projects, which are conce ntrated mainly in the industrial sector. For the commercial sector, despite its relative heterogeneity from the standpoint of both size as well as pur pose. cogeneration projects have the advantage of being relatively simple. This article identifies the technical and economic potential of natural gas fired cogeneration systems for malls in Rio de Janeiro through the use of an assessment model. The results are unfavorable within the current regulat ory and tariff context in Brazil, indicating the need for combined policies to provide incentives for cogeneration projects in the Brazilian commercia l sector. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.