An overview of the political, technical and economical aspects of gas-fired distributed energy system in China

The interest in distributed energy system has been increasing in China in recent years due to the environmental and energy policy concerns. The distributed energy system generates power, heating and cooling to residential, commercial and industrial facilities. Due to cascade utilization of energy, it can make good use of energy to improve energy efficiency and to increase energy savings. Furthermore, it consumes less energy and reduces carbon emissions. This paper reviews existing and newly-built gas-fired distributed energy projects in China. The techno-economic assessment of the selected projects has also been discussed and reported. The results show that in Xiamen Jimei DE project, the primary energy ratio of the DES can be as high as 92.9%, and energy-saving rate is 35.5%. Moreover, exergy efficiency reaches 54.3%, and the system can reduce 0.52 million tons of CO2 annually.

► The political, technical and economical aspects of gas-fired DES are analyzed. ► The techno-economic assessment of two selected projects is conducted. ► Primary energy ratio can be as high as 92.9% and energy-saving rate is 35.5%. ► Exergy efficiency is 54.3% and the system can reduce a large amount of CO2 emissions.