Cogeneration workshop for energy management courses by means of spreadsheets

• Autores: J. Galindo, August Climent i Ferrer, J.M. García Oliver, J. Gimeno
• Localización: The International journal of engineering education, ISSN-e 0949-149X, Vol. 25, no. 3, 2009, págs. 595-602
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • A spreadsheet-based workshop has been introduced for teaching energy management. Students have to carry out an energy and economic analysis of the cogeneration facilities. In this paper, the spreadsheet and the different phases of the feasibility analysis are described. Students have to consider different issues, such as the analysis of the energy demand and the choice of prime mover, as well as the operating conditions, and the choice of fuel prices. The workshop has been used in two courses dealing with energy management at both bachelor and master level. The main contribution of this approach is related to the use of spreadsheets to solve complex optimization problems, which were not easy to handle in classroom exercises before the introduction of the workshop. The students' feedback was obtained by means of questionnaires. The evaluation of the students' performance shows that the approach is adequate for them to learn about complex decision-making problems.