The Deregulated Energy Market is a driving force in today’s energy business. Distributed Generation (DG) and Distributed Co-Generation (heat and power) represent the immediate consequence of deregulation, because energy customers are pushed to adopt the most competitive solutions for satisfying their thermal and electrical demands. In the end, global energy saving will also be achieved, with great benefits for all.

The TPG addresses the DG question with particular regard to the development and integration of new technologies and total system optimisation. Combined Heat and Power Systems (CHP) present many problems in terms of:

• Choice of the best configuration and plant layout;
• Optimal size according to customer demand and load curve;
• Thermoeconomic optimised management of installed equipment, taking into account operating and maintenance costs, environmental emissions and legal constraints.

The TPG deals with all these problems with a complete thermoeconomic approach that allows the optimal solution to be found via updated and flexible software tools specifically directed at DG.

In addition, the TPG research activity is also concerned with trigeneration, studying the best options for high-temperature or low-temperature heat co-generation and investigating the thermoeconomic performance of trigenerative plants including the absorber, chiller and heat pump.