If there are two phrases we have come to know very well, they are 'environmental awareness' and 'credit crunch'. The world is looking for ways to decrease the emission of CO₂ into the atmosphere, without incurring major costs in doing so. By increasing efficiencies up to about 90 per cent using well-established and mature technologies, cogeneration represents the best option for short-term reductions in CO₂ emission levels.

District energy (DE) systems use central heating and/or cooling facilities to provide heating and/or cooling services for communities and can be particularly beneficial when integrated with cogeneration plants for electricity and heat. This book provides information on district energy and cogeneration technologies, and the systems that combine them, with a focus on their modelling, analysis and optimization.

Cogeneration, also called combined heat and power (CHP), refers to the use of a power station to deliver two or more useful forms of energy, for example, to generate electricity and heat at the same time. All conventional, fuel-based plants generate heat as by-product, which is often carried away and wasted. Cogeneration captures part of this heat for delivery to consumers and is thus a thermodynamically efficient use of fuel, and contributes to reduction of carbon emissions. This book provides an integrated treatment of cogeneration, including a tour of the available technologies and their features, and how these systems can be analysed and optimised.