Coming Soon!
On-Site Generation
While central station power will continue to be the predominate
delivery system for our industry for years to come, Consumers Energy
is exploring the use of on-site generation often times referred
to as distributed generation.
Technology trends are that fuel
cells are well suited for the residential distributed generation
market; microturbines for small commercial and aggregated loads,
and small gas turbines for large industrial customers in the near
future.
Factors influencing DG acceptance are:
- Cost - costs for DG are coming down and supply and transmission
constraints are raising retail central station prices.
- Customer Choice - consumers are more educated as to their alternatives,
and unbundled rates allow customers to understand what they are
being charged.
- Reliability - transmission constraints are an issue, also on-site
generation is also believed to have better quality and reliability
than grid power.
- Environmental - more stringent environmental
laws are being applied to central station generation and DG is generally
cleaner than existing technologies.
Consumers Energy offers back-up
generators, fuel cells
and microturbines, along
with other on-site technologies. Please contact Paul Sams
at 641-752-2296 x102 or e-mail her at psams@consumersenergy.coop
to learn more about how we can help you with your reliability issues
by placing generating devices at your home or business.
 Back to Power Reliability and Alternative Energy Sources
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