Reliability Benefits
CHP is a virtually ideal form of energy from an energy security point of view:
CHP facilities are relatively small and distributed widely.
They do not offer a high-profile target to potential terrorists.
Their locations in industrial, commercial, residential, and district energy facilities of many sorts mean they are not physically isolated and vulnerable, but instead share the security implicit in their host facilities.
Their locations at the point of need eliminate their vulnerability to a disruption of the transmission system, and indeed create the ability to provide emergency power downstream of such a disruption.
They are independently fueled and operated. While they can be centrally dispatched, they can also be operated independently in the event of a disruption to central systems.
Most CHP systems utilize natural gas from secure sources, rather than imported petroleum, but they can also be operated on wood wastes, coal, or other secure fuels.
The efficiency of CHP has a security benefit, since vulnerability to fuel interruptions is proportionate to fuel consumption.
Distributed energy resources like CHP reduce electricity infrastructure vulnerability. CHP installations dispersed across the US together with defensible major facilities, are less vulnerable than central power plants to disruption. CHP also generally uses secure natural gas or other domestic fuels.
CHP can increase the reliability of a building's power supply - a substantial advantage in today's changing electricity market and high-tech society. A highly reliable power supply is vital to some companies' computing, manufacturing, and research functions. CHP can provide the fabled "6 nines" of power reliability to the digital economy, as well as provide cooling to high-tech equipment. The computer chips that operate industrial processes, telecommunications, Internet communications, and financial transactions can withstand only 8 milliseconds of power loss before losing memory.
Facilities like data centers - the buildings stacked with servers and switches that power the digital economy - require 6 nines, or 99.9999%, probability that power will not be interrupted. The electric grid provides only 4 nines, or 99.99%, probability - insufficient reliability for a company that loses a million dollars a minute when the power goes out. Distributed energy can avert tremendous financial losses by providing primary and secondary power on-site and using the grid for backup, according to Tom Casten in Transforming Electricity.
