Cogeneration: will it be a part of upcoming US energy plans

Abstract

The required Third National Energy Plan NEP-III offers the Reagan administration an opportunity to assess cogeneration. The Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act, increasing energy prices, capital-intensive industrial investments in energy efficiency, utility financing problems, opportunities for decentralized energy systems, stabilizing gas supplies, and the economics of energy efficiency combined to make cogeneration attractive to a wide range of energy producers and users. US energy policy will be reassessing several issues, among them the roles of utilities, states, and the Federal government in cogeneration and the appropriate financial and legal incentives to ensure certainty for those developing cogeneration facilities. (DCK)