2.1.5.2. Economic Impacts

Economic analysis was carried out to understand the convenience of cogeneration in the country from an economic point of view. The analysis consisted of (a) estimating the costs avoided if cogeneration is used instead of large thermal power plants that operate on fossil fuels, and (b) computing the cost of generating electricity in cogeneration plants if the whole potential of cogeneration calculated is installed. Table 5 summarizes the parameters employed for conducting the economic analysis. Some of these parameters are in agreemen<sup>t</sup> with the work of [42]. The prices of fuels and electricity are similar in all regions of the country.


**Table5.**Parametersusedfortheeconomicanalysis.

\* Includes project managemen<sup>t</sup> and design engineering as well as construction and start-up. This is a referential cost due to discrepancy of values in the literature. The authors of [78] show higher values, but [87] and [85] report values in the range of USD 1000/kW. However, the cost of a gas engine (1 MW) operating at a landfill in Cuenca was USD 450/kW. The value considered in this work could be adequate due to economy of scale when contracting and installing several cogeneration plants. \*\* TR refers to ton of refrigeration (equivalent to 3.52 kW). \*\*\* Electricity to be sold to the national electricity grid after operation of the plant and service loads are met. \*\*\* To operate cogeneration plants based on Rankine cycle.


**Table 6.** Summary of prime movers selected for cogeneration/trigeneration in Ecuador, range of sizes, and expected capacity factor for each type of industry.

(1) Using only gas engines running with biogas. (2) Using biomass from the same plant. (3) Depending on the size of the company. (4) Further study is required to analyze the possibility of using biomass.
