Waste not, want not

The paper reviews the effect of total energy schemes on the operations of the London Electricity Board (LEB) in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and describes the proposed connection of privately owned generators to the LEB system. The introduction of combined heat and power (CHP) systems is then described, and the benefits of the more efficient use of fuels in such systems are explained. Reductions in heavy fuel oil prices have helped the economics of CHP. The adoption of CHP and district heating (DH) in the UK is encouraged, and is foreseen as being complementary to conventional and nuclear power generation.