Micro/Mini CHP in the Building Area - Energy Centre Hungary, Hungary

Summary
The OPET Building project focused upon the promotion of efficient and innovative building-related energy technologies in major segments of the building sector. This project focused on Combined Heat and Power (CHP) technologies in the micro/mini sector. Our task was to define the priority applications of micro/mini CHP in Hungary and this was carried out by establishing a database. As part of our task, we also undertook a survey of micro/mini CHP available on the market. This was made accessible to the public through our OPET website, which functioned as a supplier-costumer platform.

Participants in the conferences and workshops organized in Balatonfüred, Visegrád and Siófok had access to information about the positive effects of CHP and the OPET Network. Articles have been published in the journal ‘Energiagazdálkodás' on the recent developments and results of OPET. Our participation in another OPET project (OPET CHP/DHC) also helped us during the tasks.

End-user area	Legal initiatives (municipal regulations, directives, etc) New buildings Refurbishment of buildings
Target audience	Households Property owners Schools and universities
Technical scope	CHP District Heating Energy efficiency Heating

Context
Combined heat and power (CHP), suitable for individual buildings and groups of buildings, is an energy supply technology, which can make a positive contribution to the overall energy performance of a building. Because fuel is used both for electricity and heat production, CHP is an energy-efficient solution which contributes to reducing CO2 emissions. Increased use of CHP in the buildings sector will make a major contribution to meeting the indicative Community target of doubling the total share for CHP electricity production to 18% by 2010.

Energy Centre Hungary (ECH) is a national agency established to promote national and international co-operation focusing on energy efficiency improvement and environmental protection. Accordingly, we were pleased to join the OPET projects particularly, because as a new member of the European Union such innovation helps to fulfil EU requirements.

Objectives
OPET BUILDING Network pursues the following overall goals:

• Promoting of efficient and innovative building-related energy technologies in the major segment of the building sector.
• Supporting of market penetration of innovative instruments and tools.
• Ensuring a smooth and quick application of the European regulation concerning the energy performance of buildings.
• Increasing the level of information and know-how transfer throughout Europe.
• Contributing to the creation of a European research area by strengthening the co-operation between with research centres, universities and industries, that deal with the development of building-related technologies.

Our tasks in WP5 were as follows:

• Definition of priority applications.
• Survey of micro/mini-CHP available on the market.
• Creation of a Supplier/customer-platform.
• Quality criteria: Definition of quality criteria for economic and technological feasibility of micro/mini-cogeneration techniques and promotion of these criteria towards decision makers.
• Advice tools: Compilation of advice tools that support the choice of the most suitable de-centralised energy system.
• Compilation and dissemination of information material.

Process
OPET Building WP5 was an international project with 4 participants: Austria, Spain, Hungary and the project leader Belgium. Despite the fact that the project started on the 1st of April 2003, due to late joining to the project, ECH started its operation late August. The first thing to do was to establish a database adequate to the criteria of the project, which was a fairly difficult process, as the number of micro/mini CHP units in Hungary was insignificant. In order to overcome this problem, we put existing small (as opposed to micro) CHP units at the centre of our research and worked with them during the project. This meant getting in contact with the owners of such units.

After compiling the database, we turned to the main tasks of the project. First, a table was made in which we indicated the priority applications of the units used in Hungary. In addition, on the basis of current units and trends, we gave an expectation towards the future.

Since the mid-1990s, a large number of gas engine cogeneration plants have been set up as heat sources for smaller district heating systems, in industrial plants and public buildings. In the last couple of years, the number of such plants has multiplied. As part of our tasks, we organized a supplier-customer platform, which was carried out also through conferences and workshops. The most important of these was held in Visegrád on the 29th and 30th of April 2004, where CHP technology was promoted in frames of the Conference on Electricity. Other conferences were held in Balatonfüred (Energy Forum), and Siófok- Balatonszéplak (17th District Heating Conference).

Another, more accessible way of reaching the public, is the promotion of CHP through publications. During the last 12 month, Energiagazdálkodás has reported several times from OPET-Network, along with publications in favour of CHP.

Actions
- Seminar
- Market analysis
- Webpage
- Database

Financial resources and partners
The total budget for the Hungarian part of the project was 15,3 k€ of which 50% was contributed by the European Commission. The rest of the budget was covered by the Energy Centre Hungary.

One of our major partners during the project was the organization Cogen Hungary, which concerns itself with the promotion of CHP. András István Fazekas was invited at the Cogen Europe 2004 Congress where he gave a presentation entitled: ‘Possibilities for the development of cogeneration in Hungary', which was also presented at the Cogen Hungary Conference in March 2004.

Otherwise, as mentioned above, thanks to the journal Energiagazdálkodás, the events and results of OPET Network were reported several times.

Results
The following deliverables have been carried out:

• Conference on Electricity in Visegrád (on 29-30 of April 2004)
• Workshop on Microturbines at BUTE on May 11, 2004
• Fazekas, A. I.: Possibilities for the development of cogenration in Hungary COGEN Europe 2004. Brussels
• Fazekas, A. I.: A kapcsolt energiatermelés alakulása Magyarországon. Energiagazdálkodás ISSN 0021-0757, 45.volume, 2004/2, pp 12-18
• Weise, I.: Decentralised energy generation, expected tendencies until 2020. Energy Fórum conference, Balatonfüred, 15 - 16 of April 2004
• Weise, I.: Gas turbine or gas engine? 17 th District heating conference. Siófok-Balatonszéplak.
  5-7. May 2004
• Csurök, T.: Architecture, major equipment, performance and operational characteristics of the microturbines. Workshop on Microturbines. BUTE May 11, 2004
• Desmedt, J.: Research and its achievements at the Flemish Institute for Technological Research in Belgium. Workshop on Microturbines. BUTE May 11, 2004
• Lezsovits F.: Research activity being carried out at the Department of Energy Engineering within the framework of the EU 5 th Framework Program, related to the application of the microturbines. Workshop on Microturbines. BUTE May 11, 2004
• Software for simplified economical analysis of CHP (available on the CD at the ECH)

As far as the results and the realisation of the tasks are concerned, the compilation and the dissemination of information material should be regarded as the most successful area. During the conferences and workshops a host of people got involved in CHP. There were 164 participants in Visegrád and 220 participants in Siófok who became acquainted with the newest technologies. Also Energiagazdálkodás contributed to that success as it is available for all members of ETE (Hungarian Scientific Association for Energetic Engineering) and plenty of Hungarian municipalities and libraries are to be found among its subscribers.

Five people were working on the project during the 10 month period. Therefore, the social benefits of the projects are also not irrelevant.

Our relation with Cogen Hungary has been tightened. This relationship has resulted in the promotion of the objectives of OPET at the 27th Cogen Europe Conference, too. We can interpret the jointly-organised conferences as spin-off activities, as more participants were able to consider the benefits of CHP technology in the context of large conferences.

Lessons learned and replication potential
The conclusions and lessons learned from the implementation of the project can be summarised as follows:

1. The project focused our attention upon the benefits of CHP (including micro/mini turbines) and using renewable energy for cogeneration.
2. The project gave opportunities to share experiences in the form of project meetings, conferences, study tours, brochures and other tools.
3. The project helped to disseminate both information and best practices.

However, there have occurred some complications in connection with the interpretation of the tasks. The different tasks and deliverables weren't quite clear in all cases. Therefore, in some cases we had to rely upon our own interpretation. In retrospect, more precise task definition would have make the participants' job easier.