NCSEA Wins Petition to Qualify Topping Cycle as Energy Efficiency

Combined heat and power (CHP) has been a topic of discussion for many years in North Carolina’s energy efficiency sector — particularly, topping cycle CHP because of its high efficiency and technical potential in the state. The statutory language to qualify as an energy efficiency measure has been in debate among parties, and over the past year, NCSEA has argued that existing NC Utilities Commission (NCUC) regulations should allow all of the components of a new topping cycle CHP system to qualify as an energy efficiency measure under NC’s Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard.

NCSEA is pleased to share that this week, the NC Court of Appeals agreed with us, ruling in favor of our appeal to qualify topping cycle CHP as energy efficiency. This is a huge win for industrial energy efficiency in North Carolina, as it will soon enable utilities to offer customer incentives for topping cycle CHP and unquestionably be a powerful tool for enabling high-efficiency distributed generation and microgrids.