Evaluation of distributed generation technologies in a university context

The paper aims at examining the capabilities of the application of distributed generation technologies in a university context. It intends to design a plant dedicated to the production of electric energy, heat and cool and to define the optimal management conditions in order to meet the energy requirements of the chosen users. The paper has energy and environmental targets: indeed, cogeneration allows to save primary energy, in comparison to separate production, and it is therefore possible to reduce polluting emissions and greenhouse gases, thanks to lower amount of fuel required. Besides, in order to evaluate possible economic benefits, because this system could be installed in Italy, a deep analysis of European and Italian legislation is carried out. In fact, these laws ensure support for cogeneration (white certificates and electricity transfer to the national electric grid) and so the micro-cogenerator, depending on the chosen operation strategy, could also bring forth interesting economic results. Performance potentialities of systems and components that can be integrated for such application are analysed, with reference to the current state of the art. The necessary data for the design of the systems were obtained on the field, and suitable numerical codes were developed in order to evaluate the energy, environmental and economic performance of the plant configuration proposed.