The district heating net is a pipe network that supplies heating and hot water for connected consumers from a central power plant. It is a more efficient way to provide heat and power compared to localized boilers. District cooling is the cooling equivalent of district heating. Working in accordance to similar principles, district cooling delivers chilled water to buildings like offices and factories. Trigeneration is when electricity, heating and cooling are combined in the same plant.

Responds to the following needs

The smart grid is the state-­‐of-­‐the-­‐art technology for electrical system that can sensibly execute the operations to all interconnected elements -­‐ from generator to consumers. Smart grid simply converts the conventional power grid towards the modern grid in order to regulate sustainable, economic and reliable electricity (Massoud &Wollenberg, 2005 and Gellings, 2009). Smart grid intelligently executes operations from primary and secondary generators through the transmission and distribution network to the different types of consumers.

A stand-alone power system (SAPS or SPS), also known as remote area power supply (RAPS), is an off-the-grid electricity system for locations that are not fitted with an electricity distribution system. Typical SAPS include one or more methods of electricity generation, energy storage, and regulation.

Electricity is typically generated by one or more of the following methods: