Assessment and Enhancement of the Energy Supply System Efficiency with Emphasis on the Cogeneration and Renewable as Main Directions for Fuel Saving

This paper presents methods for assessing economic, resource and environmental efficiency of cogeneration plants (CPs) and energy supply systems as a whole and ways of its improvement, the main of which are the development of cogeneration and renewable energy sources (RES). The problem of allocating fuel and financial costs in the case of the combined production in accordance with the criterion of equal profitability of supplied products is solved. The methods allow determining specific indicators of supplied products which makes it possible to compare the efficiency of energy supply systems of different companies and countries, and to define their future target indicators. The technology of introducing RES-based power plants to the energy supply systems by means of using unstabilized RES-based power for direct fuel substitution at thermal power plants (the wind is viewed as the most promising type of RES). This paper can be interesting to power engineering specialists, businessmen and economists, and also participants of the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference aimed at achieving a universal agreement on climate, which will be held in 2015 in Paris.