Also known as cogeneration, CHP is the concurrent production of electricity and thermal energy (heating) from a single source of energy. The University of Montana has had on-campus cogeneration since the 1990’s and has been burning natural gas in our steam plant since the 1960’s. Our current cogeneration facility uses natural gas primarily to make steam to heat our buildings and provide steam to campus. We are exploring replacing some of our old equipment with newer technology that would increase the amount of electricity we produce onsite, continue to make steam for heat.

CHP can use a variety of fuels. The idea for UM CHP would be to continue using natural gas as the primary fuel source but to invest in technology that would allow fuel flexibility. Down the road, hydrogen, landfill gas, gasified wood, or biodiesel could all be potential fuels to replace natural gas.

• More noise, potentially.
• More natural gas consumption (and the environmental/social impacts of natural gas extraction, transportation, and burning)
• Sophisticated plant equipment and operations

Benefits of replacing some of our old equipment and generating more electricity on campus include:

Significant cost savings to UM:

The difference in cost between the electricity we purchase off the grid from Northwestern Energy and what it would cost to generate it on campus with natural gas is significant. Electricity is likely to continue getting more expensive, while the cost of natural gas over the last 5 years has continued to remain relatively low. This cost difference is what may make CHP financially viable for UM.

On-site electricity generation:

CHP would be a type of distributed energy generation instead of central generation (energy coming from one or two large facilities that are far away from the end user, like our current situation when we purchase electricity from NWE). This means that UM would be less effected by the loss of grid-supplied electricity in the event of an outage. Aside from making our campus energy systems more resilient, generating electricity onsite means that less electricity is lost in transmission, resulting in a more efficient electrical system overall. On-site CHP reduces that loss significantly, ultimately meaning less fuel burned for the energy produced.

Emissions reductions:

We anticipate a 30% reduction in our scope 1 and 2 emissions from our 2018 baseline once the CHP is online and operational. For a deeper dive into the greenhouse gas emissions accounting, please see the UM GHG Emissions Summary that’s also located on our Combined Heat and Power page. For an explanation of the emissions calculations, please see the Environmental Assessment located on the same page.

The UM CHP project proposes the installation of two OPRA16 dual fuel-fired combustion turbine generators, a Tulsa combustion heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) boiler equipped with dual fuel-fired duct burner, and an Airclean Energy steam turbine generator. The proposed electrical generators would produce up to 5 megawatts (MW) of power and the HRSG would generate up to 70,000 pounds per hour (lb/hr) of steam for use on the UM mountain campus.