**2. Materials and Methods**

Our literature review suggests that there are not standardized methods for computing the potential of cogeneration/trigeneration in a specific geographical region or country, which is understandable since each country and its industrial sector have specific conditions that need to be taken into account. There are di fferent aspects that need to be analyzed to determine the most suitable methodology to compute cogeneration potential at a country level (e.g., weather, types of energy sources available, altitude above the sea level, energy policies and incentives). In tropical climate countries such as Ecuador, the weather is an important factor that determines specific types of cogeneration schemes because, as previously mentioned, there is no need for indoor heating (an important energy requirement in tempered climate countries), but air conditioning is required instead [34–36]. Consequently, cogeneration projects are more suitable in the industrial sector and in other places where hot and cold fluids are used (e.g., hospitals, hotels, airports, shopping malls). These are the target places for cogeneration projects in tropical climate countries.

Another factor to consider for computing the potential of cogeneration is the pattern of energy consumption in the industrial sector, which in Ecuador is relatively constant throughout the year, reflecting a common feature of energy consumption in the industry of tropical countries. For Ecuador, and to illustrate this important point, Figure 2 shows two examples of energy consumption curves (both electricity and fuel) corresponding to two large Ecuadorian industrial companies (herein referred to as companies M and N) devoted to the production of tires (M) and pulp and paper (N). This energy consumption pattern of the industrial sector in Ecuador suggests that cogeneration plants in tropical climate countries could operate at approximately constant capacity year-round, which makes the sizing process of the cogeneration plants easier. The methodology adopted herein considers these elements.
