Commercial CHP Solutions
Optimize your company’s operational costs with CHP or CCHP
It’s a simple idea: If you can’t get to the power source, put the power source onsite. That is just what is happening at a variety of commercial applications around the globe, where you’ll find intelligent onsite combined heat and power (CHP) generation or combined cooling, heat, and power (CCHP) using Jenbacher engines. Office buildings, convention centers, airports, shopping malls, sports arenas, universities, hotels, and theme parks—all can benefit from onsite power.
Our dedicated Jenbacher experts are available to provide personal consultation.
That’s because cogeneration (CHP) saves approximately 40% of fuel compared to separate generation, and building CHP systems where they are used avoids supply and distribution losses. Jenbacher engines can generate CHP total efficiencies up to 95%. And trigeneration (CCHP) can save you even more. Now that’s intelligent.
In addition, you can combine your CHP or CCHP plant with other power generation, storage, and control solutions as part of a microgrid.
Why onsite power generation
Jenbacher onsite cogeneration (CHP) and trigeneration (CCHP) solutions can help you achieve your economic targets, including:
- Decrease your energy use with better efficiency, when compared to centralized energy sources
- Launch/extend your company’s operations with new power access in energy-deficient areas
- Decrease your carbon footprint and meet your environmental commitments
- Lower your downtime with improved quality of the electricity supply in regions with an unstable grid infrastructure
Installed inside a building, an onsite power system usually includes an engine/generator unit and heat exchangers that use waste heat. A wide range of heat sources—from commercial gas engine cooling water and oil to an air/fuel gas mixture and exhaust gas—can be configured for each individual application. Jenbacher solutions can deliver flexible power generation and a high degree of reliability and availability to meet your specific energy needs.
As an option, Jenbacher CHP modules can be packaged in containerized solutions. Our ready-to-use containerized genset means reduced construction times for faster onsite power generation.
Trigeneration
Depending on your needs, you might want to consider using a combined cooling, heat, and power (CCHP) system based on Jenbacher engine technology. These trigeneration systems combine the cogeneration plant with absorption chillers to efficiently generate air conditioning and/or refrigeration.
Cogeneration equipment offers high efficiency and low emissions. Absorption chillers provide an economic and environmental alternative to conventional refrigeration with compression chillers. Combining those two elements enables total fuel efficiency, elimination of HCFC/CFC refrigerants, and overall air emission reductions.
Flexible solutions
Jenbacher commercial power generation solutions can work in baseload, mid-merit, and peak shaving applications, and you can modify these, depending on your needs. You can even feed excess electricity into the public power grid for an additional revenue source.
Depending on your requirements, Jenbacher solutions efficiently work in both island mode and grid parallel mode.
Benefits
- Lower your operating and investment costs using a Jenbacher CHP solution with a wide range of available heat and power outputs
- Achieve up to 48% electrical efficiency and up to 95% for total CHP systems
- Gain access to electricity and heat in the short term
- Efficiently combine production of power, heat and cooling by integrating CHP solutions with absorption chillers
- Operate safely with reliability
- Enjoy quick installation with a Jenbacher containerized, ready-to-use industrial CHP power plant
- Reduce your plant’s footprint requirements with our compact design
Experience our webinar: Learn about our CHP solutions
Jenbacher North American team invites you to review the recording of our recent webinar, to learn how Jenbacher can help you develop your power plant projects, including equipment design and performance, using hydrogen and much more! In the webinar, you will learn more about:
- Overview of an independent power plant and its components
- Jenbacher’s highly efficient type 6 genset
- Our hydrogen power generation solutions
- How proven equipment design improves performance
- Power generation solutions with quick delivery and easy installation
The information provided is relevant for the North American market. Please reach out to our experts to discuss your project.
Our experts are ready to help you
Whether your business is looking for onsite power solutions, access to electricity, decreased energy costs, or even to sell electricity back to your local grid/consumers, Jenbacher´s regional experts can advise you on which solution makes the most sense for you.
Get in touch for free consultation on the following:
- The benefits of onsite power generation solutions for your company
- Potential financial benefits using economic modeling
- Consultation on the technical side of your project – fuel types, feasibility studies, equipment and balance of plant selection, and more
- Regional incentive programs relevant to your business
- Options to deliver your project: purchasing, financing and leasing, engaging a service provider (ESCO, BOO etc.)
- How to meet emissions targets
Fill-in contact form, or send us an email contact.en@innio.com.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can commercial CHP solution help lower energy OPEX?
By making power and heat on site instead of buying both separately, a building can cut its electricity and heating bills. Whether it actually does depends on the gap between fuel cost and grid electricity price, and how much of the heat gets used. Buildings with steady demand for both — hotels, hospitals, anywhere running around the clock — tend to see the best results.
What types of buildings benefit most from commercial CHP solutions?
Hotels, hospitals, universities, and multi-building campuses tend to benefit most because they have around-the-clock demand for both electricity and heat or hot water. Jenbacher commercial CHP is available from around 335 kW up to large multi-MW installations.
Can CHP integrate with a building's existing heating and hot water systems?
In many cases, yes — recovered heat from a CHP plant can be routed into existing hot water or heating systems with the right heat exchangers, without requiring a full HVAC overhaul. The scope of integration depends on the building’s current setup.
Is CHP reliable enough for hospitals or buildings that can't lose power?
Yes, commercial CHP can be configured for grid-parallel operation, giving hospitals, data centers, and similar facilities a dependable power source that keeps running during grid disruptions. Reliability also depends on maintenance practices.
What size CHP system fits a typical commercial building in the US?
Mid-size commercial facilities often start around 335 kW per unit, scaling up with additional units for larger campuses. The right size depends on a load analysis of the building’s actual electricity and heat use.
How long does it take for commercial CHP to pay for itself?
There’s no fixed number – it comes down to local energy prices, building size, and how much of the recovered heat actually gets used. A building with round-the-clock demand and a wide gap between onsite produced energy vs. grid electricity price can pay back in just a few years. Where that gap is narrow, or heat use is inconsistent, it can take much longer or not make sense at all.
Consult an expert
Send us a message and we’ll contact you to start the conversation.
Whether your business is looking for onsite power solutions, access to electricity, decreased energy costs, or even to sell electricity back to your local grid/consumers, Jenbacher regional experts can advise you on which solution makes the most sense for you.
