This scheme of a central generating facility supplying electricity and exhaust steam is quite similar today, but was not immediately apparent, or even technically feasible, when the first electric lights appeared. The first Edison installation relied on direct current generated at 1 1 O V, which could only be transmitted for a limited distance. Although the first Edison central station at Pearl Street had its own COGENERATION IS MORE PROFITABLE For many years, the only economic alternative to cogeneration was to simply exhaust steam from the plant's engines into the atmosphere. As plants became larger and finances became more sound, condencing steam engines were installed in series with the primary high-pressure engine, but General Manager: DO YOU WANT TO lNCREASE YOUR ELECTRIC BUSINESS? DO YOU WANT TO JNCREASE. YOUR R.ECEIPTS? DO YOU WANT TO FURNISH LAAGEBLOCKSTHATNOW HAVE THElR OWN BOJLERS, ENGINES and DYNAMOS, WlTH HEAT, LIGHT and POWER ? H ıo, inıııU our ıyılcn, of ı.ındnıı:round u:h•u.ıt ıtcam hut!nr, ;and w.11 your c.xbauu ılum lor wourh ıo p.,.y ali ıt.ıılon czpcnıa anıl lntcrut 011 thc invutmcnt for sıe.ım m�lns. Wc guırınıcc ruuİıı. Wrllc for our pımphkt, Mcnlk>n Wuttrn. El«t,k/ın. boilers, the second Edison plant in New York had no boilers and instead purchased steam from the mains of New York Steam Company, Because steam could be sent farther than direct current power, several schemes were proposed to install disributed generation plants at various locations served by district steam. Although this did not become the dominant paradigm in the energy world, this scenario is stili widely used, particularly in New York where a significant number off steam turbines are powered with district steam. in the end, however, the managemet of the new York Steam Company abandoned electric lights for the neew water gas lightiing system, which was also generated using district steam and was widely used for several other cities with district steam systems, including Hartford (Connecticut), Lock Haven (Pennsylvania) and Burlington (lowa), the existing district steam comAMERICAN 01STRICT STEAM Ca. pany boiler plant was seen as the most logical place to install the engine generator for the electric lighting system. Energy entrepreneurs faced enormous technical and financial obstacles in developing these early systems, but perhaps the most onerous challenge was the political. Edison's initial electric system in Manhattan was delaayed for moreee thaaan a year as he jousted with, and finally paid off, the local common council members, while the New York Steam Company was delayed nearly three years by similar machiinations. üne result of this was the initial proliferation of this neew technology in smaller towns, where there were fewer politicians and lawyers to deal with. in Denver (Colorado), for instance, the city council approved a franchise for the Holly Steam System at a single meeting in December 1879 and construction began immediately. Of the twenty Edison central stations operating at the end of 1885, all except the original Pearl Street plant were in small towns. Other political obstacles appeared at the state level, which controlled matters such as incorporation. üne example was Pennsylvania, where the legislature in 1889 simply outlawed cogeneration by restricting a corporation generating energy to a single output (electricity, steam, or gas) butno combination of them. This obstacle was short-lived, however, since the Pennsylvania secretary of State allowed charters to be issued for corporations producing steam 'as a necessary byproduct of electric generation'. Doğal Gaz Dergisi 1 16 LDCKPORT,N:t'. these installations were limited by high cost of condensing engines and the difficulty of maintaining a condenser water source before the cooling tower came on the scene after the turn of the century. Contemporary sources suggest that the 'Panic' of 1893, which resulted in a near-meltdown of the American bancing system. Many central station companies suddenly lost customers, revenues, and profits, and the principal company in the district heating market, the American District Steam Company, started running a series of advertisements in electrical trade magazines offering cogeneration as a means to restore profitability. These were successful enough that competitors once again appeared in the marketplace, for the first time including companies offering low-temperature hot water district heating. The first of these was Homer T. Yaryan of Toledo, who in 1894 installed a low-temperature hot water system in that city to distribute heat from the electric light plant. His system included a termal storage tank to allow hot water to be made when electric demand was highest. The Yaryan system is thermodynamically identical to 'modern' low temperature hot water district systems and differed primarily in the piping construction, for which Yaryan utilized steel pipes inserted in hollow wooden logs, as was common practice in the steam industry. (As a sidelight on Yaryan, he was chief of the United Stated Revenue Service in 1875 and so adept at uncovering fraunds that he was removed from office by President Ulysses S. Grant, likely to protect Grant's cronies.) ---------------(@f' Eylul - Ekim 2000 Sayı 70
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