NEWPORT BEACH, CA— To combat the recent energy crisis going on in California, and the increasing environmental concerns, The Sutton Place Hotel here has called on CoastIntelligen to design and in-stall a cogeneration power system as an alternative means of producing energy for the property. The hotel decided to switch to a cogeneration system for a number of reasons, according to Chuck Ekstrom, director/engineering at the property. “First, we experienced rolling blackouts years back. Also, the price of energy was steadily on the rise during that period as well. In the end, by going cogen we can now be self-sustaining,” he said. In fact, now that the onsite power plant is fully operational, the hotel is starting to realize some immediate benefits. For instance, the system allows the hotel to generate its own electricity. In addition, each of the four new 250-SC generators, powered by natural gas, is environmentally friendly, and will produce up to 250 kW for a total onsite generation capacity of 1,000 kW. To go back in time a bit, before the new cogeneration system was installed this past summer the hotel simply had a TOU8 rate with Edison. Specifically, the property had two 8 million-btu boilers and two 32-kW electric heaters onsite in order to heat the pool and Jacuzzi prior to installation. “Because of the new system, if there are rolling blackouts or power outages in the future, the hotel now has the ability to operate independently of the electrical grid,” Ekstrom said. “In addition, as a bi-product, we’re able to heat the entire hotel, laundry system and the pool and Jacuzzi as well,” he said. As part of the system there are four engines to heat the water and provide the necessary power flow. “This is a positive for the hotel because only two engines are needed to sustain the entire property,” Ekstrom said. “As a result, there is a redundancy there to keep everything running if there should be a problem with any of the onsite engines going forward. Also, these machines track the power load at any point in time so that unnecessary engine use is eliminated.” The contract to switch to this new system was officially signed in March 2002, but Edison had to do certain checks to ensure that the new product would be able to parallel their grid before it could be brought online. At present, the synchronized engines run by themselves when Edison goes offline for any reason and then they actually synchronize with Edison once it comes back online without any interruption at all. As far as the timeline goes, by the middle of this past September, the Edison checks had been completed and the system was then operational. One might think that the transition would be a complicated one that caused a lot of interruption in normal hotel systems and resulted in the property experiencing a decline in consumer interest as a result, however that was not the case here. Simply put, at 11 p.m. for six hours at a time the power onsite was completely shut down on only three occasions to successfuly install the entire system. While the system may seem very high-tech and futuristic in nature, in fact, combined heat and power, also known as cogeneration or CHP, has been used for over 100 years now. Energy policy-makers, however, have just renewed their interest in the technology as a way to gain energy efficiency benefits, lower consumer energy costs, and reduce the country’s contribution to the world’s atmosphere of global warming gases, such as carbon monoxide, given the recent environmental concerns afoot. While cogeneration currently produces less than 8% of the country’s electric power, it has already significantly reduced the emissions associated with generation; something the property is hoping will benefit it as well. “The main advantage for the hotel is to be environment friendly,” Ekstrom pointed out. “Also, to have the reliability for the guest-rooms was a big reason why we ultimately decided to go this route because we were impa
