Response to the Duke CHP overview document
The Duke CHP planning document posits that the proposed CHP plant will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 46,000 MTCO2e/year (i.e. metric tons CO2-equivalents per year) relative to the baseline Duke Climate Action Plan (CAP) emissions of 261,000 MTCO2e/year (pages 16-17). This estimated 18 percent reduction accrues from the reduction in natural gas use at the existing Duke University steam plants due to the purchase of steam generated from waste heat at the CHP plant. Since there will be no change in electricity purchased from the grid and since the single CHP plant will have an insignificant impact on the carbon intensity of the Duke Energy electricity generation fleet, emissions from the CHP plant are not directly taken into account in calculating the reduction in CAP emissions in the CHP planning document.