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MicroCHP: Changing the UK's energy future

This micro-site is designed to promote awareness and knowledge of microCHP technology. The term microCHP refers to a group of technologies that generate both usable heat and electricity. Like a conventional condensing boiler, these units can be used to provide space heating and hot water for your home or workplace with the added benefit of producing electricity too.

MicroCHP appliances still require an input fuel, typically natural gas and LPG, but they are more environmentally friendly and cost effective and give you more control over you home heating and electricity.

MicroCHP is eligible for a Feed in Tariff of 12.89p for every kilowatt hour of electricity generated and an export tariff of 4.64p for every kilowatt hour of electricity exported to the grid.

There are already two microCHP products available in the UK market; the Baxi Ecogen and the CFCL BlueGen with new exciting products in the pipeline from Flow and IE-CHP.

MicroCHP promises to revolutionise the way that we generate and use heat and electricity at home. We invite you to explore our webpage and learn more about this exciting innovation!

Micro CHP: Empowering consumers against rising energy bills

November 11, 2013

Immediate Release: 11/11/2013

Consumers in the United Kingdom are currently battling against rising energy bills. Transferring a significant part of electricity generation at the domestic level now makes more sense than ever. Micro combined heat and power (micro CHP), a family of technologies that allows consumers to produce their own power, does exactly that. With an array of micro CHP products now available or close to commercialisation, a framework that will incentivise and properly reward consumers to take up these empowering products can enable a bottom-up revolution in our energy market.

Recent decisions by most energy companies resulted on average in a 9% increase on the bills of many homeowners throughout the country. In times of financial austerity this generates a major challenge for consumers. A range of micro CHP systems can create value through a number of different deployment models and allow homeowners to heat their space, water and produce their own electricity on-site achieving reductions in energy bills. Generating electricity at home can deliver significant savings (up to 4.3 pence per kWh of heat delivered in comparison to traditional technologies according to a recent industry report) while offering protection against future electricity price hikes. In actual terms this could see the systems generating electricity up to the value of *£324 up to £2,000 annually depending on the technology they install and how it is managed (*Based on assumed 18,000 kWh heating and hot water requirements and electrical value of 16.10 pence per kWh).

Widespread micro CHP uptake also presents an opportunity for a bottom-up revolution in our energy market by triggering a democratisation of electricity supply. Empowering consumers to actively participate in the energy market can generate value for an energy system facing tightening capacity margins. Micro CHP naturally generates more power in the evening and in the winter at times of peak electricity demand, reducing grid strain and the need to operate, or maintain, remote fossil-fuelled peaking plants. At scale this would create substantial financial net benefits for the wider energy system, estimated at 6.2p/kWh electricity generated.

Effective support is crucial for enabling widespread deployment of micro CHP technologies, driving the emergence of a consumer-driven market; this is already happening with success in markets like Japan. This group of companies is currently working with policy makers based on the tangible objectives (see notes to editors) to deliver the numerous benefits of micro CHP.

Notes to Editors

The value of electricity savings for MCHP can be up to £324 for 1kWe stirling engine and up to £2000 for 1.5kWe fuel cell mCHP. These calculations are based on 18,000 kWh heating and hot water requirements and that an auxiliary boiler would also operate to meet dwelling heating demand.
Providing a viable incentive via the feed-in tariffs; Fiscal support for micro CHP at this stage is necessary to generate an adequate return versus incumbent technologies. Effective FIT support makes financial sense; as demonstrated by an industry report; micro CHP products would generate a net benefit for the UK economy beyond the initial 50,000 units as a result of scale and learning. Therefore it is important to sustain the FIT for micro CHP beyond the current review threshold of 30,000 units and review appropriate support for these novel micro CHP technologies that were not taken into account for FIT tariff calculations in July 2012.
Providing an initial boost through a wide demonstration project; Given the cost involved in developing micro CHP and limited market scale at present, a project to demonstrate the technology at scale would serve as a vote for confidence for this industry. This group considers that Scotland can derive significant strategic and manufacturing benefits from wide micro CHP deployment and has already discussed with Minister Fergus Ewing the potential for working together to undertake a wide demonstration project in Scotland.
Developing mechanisms to reflect the value of micro CHP; The development of solutions to provide a more market-reflective income flow for micro CHP would recognise the true value of the technology. The capacity market presents an opportunity to move towards that direction in combination with FIT support to start the market. However, current capacity market provisions do not allow the combination of FIT support with capacity market participation which constitutes a missed opportunity. This group is in on-going discussions with DECC to develop solutions to enable positive participation of aggregated micro CHP applications in the capacity market
For further information please contact:

Ilias Vazaios Partner
Ecuity Consulting LLP
[email protected]
Tel: +44 (0) 121 709 5587

Industry Group contacts:

Flowgroup plc
[email protected]
Tel: 0151 348 2100

Baxi
[email protected]
Tel: 0844 871 1525

Calor Gas Ltd
[email protected]
Tel: 0800 626 626

Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd
[email protected]
Tel: 0800 456 1229

Viessmann Ltd
[email protected]
Tel: 01952 675000


Cheers
SynQuasu