Trigeneration Systems

Rudds have integrated an innovative trigeneration system that can assist a commercial development to achieve 5 Star or better Greenstar energy rating.  The trigeneration system comprises a natural gas fired generator to produce electricity.  The heat produced by the generator, which would normally be wasted, is instead used to produce heating, cooling and hot water.  The core of Rudds’ innovation is the engineering and design which has made it possible to cost effectively integrate this system into new and existing commercial developments and reduce payback periods to well below current identified Australian benchmarks.

The value and benefits Trigeneration offers are:

• Lower CO2 emissions. A plant with a capacity to service an office building complex of say 40,000m² of space for 3000 people, can reduce CO2 emissions by more than 1,100,000kg per year, or equate to removing 360 cars from the road. 

• Operating cost savings. For a 40,000m2 office trigeneration could reduce costs by approximately $200,000 per year.  A carbon trading scheme would realise further financial benefit. 

• Reduced water use. For a 40,000m2 office complex, a gas fired generator can potentially save between 1,000 and 2,400 litres of water per hour of operation in comparison to energy produced from coal. 

• Decentralised electricity generation. The opportunity exists to move towards more decentralised electricity generation, where plant meets the needs of local consumers and avoids transmission losses. 

• Redundancy. Trigeneration can reduce the impact to consumers caused by external power outages on building power, heating and cooling. 

• Greener electricity contributed back into the grid.  Trigeneration can operate at overall efficiency levels up to 90% while the most efficient modern coal fired power is just 45% efficient.  Trigeneration and associated technology can reduce CO2 emissions from an office development by 50% or more.

Trigeneration meets a definable and sustainable need

A trigeneration system can be tailored to a wide range of developments from individual office developments, groups of buildings serviced by one central plant, 24 hour seven day a week operations such data centres, airport terminals, or larger precincts that encompass a small township.  Rudds is active in bringing this technology to the market, thus introducing the benefits to our customers and the environment.

The need to provide more energy efficient buildings is always a prominent requirement of a new development and more focus has been placed on this in recent years due to the push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and minimise running costs.  Therefore the trigeneration system is an attractive option to meet the needs of today and the needs of the future.

Retro-greening or improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings has been identified as the number one issue facing the built environment by the both the Green Building Council of Australia and the 2050 convention. Retro-fitting trigeneration to existing buildings is a cost effective solution for reducing an existing building’s greenhouse gas emissions by the order of 50%.

The Rudds developed system of trigeneration differs from currently available systems in the market because:

• It is not widely adopted in Australia.

• Existing systems are generally based on cogeneration (power and heating but not cooling) which does not take full advantage of waste energy from a gas fired generator.  The systems we have developed deliver the full advantage to clients.

• Provides a ready means of significantly improving the energy rating of a building with a pay back period of less than 10 years compared with current benchmarks.  This payback period will reduce as energy costs continue to rise.

• Option of on-selling power to a tenant or the Supply Authority.

• Improve the electrical and mechanical redundancy of a development.