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North America / Commercial & demonstration

Brevoort Cogeneration Microgrid

Current status, energy mix, organizations, suppliers, equipment, controls, reported specifications, and project updates—with source-level citations.

CoverageDetailed public record
Named organizations5
System facts17
Sources reviewed6
Evidence reviewed2026-07-20

The Brevoort cooperative at 11 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan installed a 400 kW natural-gas combined-heat-and-power microgrid built from four 100 kW Tecogen InVerde modules. Commissioned in 2010, it normally operated in parallel with Con Edison under zero-export control and islanded for six days after Hurricane Sandy, serving electricity, heat, domestic hot water, elevators, and other building loads.

Research status
Commissioned in 2010 and documented operating through at least 2013; no reliable public source confirms the system's operating condition through 2026.
Historical classification
Building
Reported capacity
See component specifications
Coordinates
40.68232, -73.97644
Evidence note: “Every company” cannot be proven from public material alone. This page lists every organization found in the recovered record and reviewed sources, preserves unknown roles, and explicitly marks undisclosed controller or equipment details.
Report missing evidenceResearch methodology

Project delivery

Who was involved in Brevoort Cogeneration Microgrid?

5 publicly identified organizations. Where a recovered source named a participant without explaining its work, the role remains explicitly unspecified.

Organization

Con Edison

Host electric utility; the system normally paralleled the utility and maintained a minimum import [3][5]

Organization

Energy Concepts

Design engineer for the CHP/microgrid installation [3]

Organization

Tecogen

Supplier of the four InVerde CHP modules, inverter controls, and microgrid operating technology [3][5]

Organization

The Brevoort cooperative

Owner and operator of the 20-story residential building and its CHP microgrid [3][5]

Organization

Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation

Licensor of CERTS autonomous load-sharing software used by Tecogen [5]

System evidence

Energy mix, capacity, and specifications

Values can describe different project phases, generation sources, storage systems, or other components. Source citations are attached to each figure so discrepancies remain visible.

KW Gas/Diesel
400 [1]
Storage
NA [1]
CHP electrical capacity
400 kW nominal: four 100 kW modules, each capable of 125 kW peak [4][5]
Absorption chiller
90 refrigeration tons [5]
Energy mix
Natural-gas CHP supplies electricity and recovered heat; Con Edison supplies supplemental grid electricity. No solar or battery storage is documented. [3][5]
Building load profile
Winter average/peak about 250/350 kW; summer average/peak about 400/550 kW [5]
Installed project cost
$3.2 million [6]

Controls and hardware

Equipment and controller details

Manufacturer and model are shown only when a source names them. Generic descriptions are not converted into guessed product assignments.

01

Combined heat and power

Tecogen — InVerde

Four natural-gas engine-generator modules rated 100 kW each, with heat recovery from engine jacket water and exhaust [4][5]

02

Absorption cooling

Yazaki

90-ton absorption chiller using recovered CHP heat [5]

03

Microgrid controls

Model not publicly disclosed

Tecogen inverter controls with CERTS autonomous power sharing and a utility-protection panel for isolation and reconnection [5]

Technical record

Architecture, performance, and project updates

Concise technical facts, milestones, operating results, and later developments. Dated notes distinguish historical design claims from current evidence.

  • General

    Cogeneration saves $300,000 / year [1]

  • Grid operation

    In normal grid-parallel operation the controls maintained at least 50 kW of utility import and prohibited export; typically three engines ran in winter and all four in summer. [5]

  • Controls

    UL 1741-certified CERTS logic let modules share load autonomously without a master controller. A utility-protection panel detected grid failure, opened the service breaker, and initiated an island restart. [5]

  • Hurricane Sandy performance

    The automatic utility breaker did not operate during Sandy, so the superintendent manually isolated the building and restarted the CHP. The building then ran islanded for six days, supporting residents and temporary guests with electricity, heat, water, and elevators. [3][5][6]

  • Efficiency

    The IEEE performance paper calculated as much as 92% total fuel utilization when all recoverable heat was used. [5]

  • Economics

    The IEEE analysis calculated $228,871 of 2013 energy savings on a 2007-cost basis and expected payback under five years; EPA reported approximately $300,000 annual realized savings. [5][6]

  • Disambiguation

    This record is the Brevoort at 11 Fifth Avenue and should not be combined with the separate Brevoort East cooperative project, which public databases list with different CHP capacity. [4]

Provenance

6 sources

Primary owner, government, university, supplier, and engineering sources are preferred. Archived references preserve claims whose original pages moved or disappeared.

  1. [1]
    Recovered Microgrid Projects record

    Internet Archive · Archived source · captured 2021-04-20

  2. [2]
    Read More

    ghi.wisc.edu · Archived source · captured 2021-04-20

  3. [3]
  4. [4]
  5. [5]
    Real-World Performance of a CERTS Microgrid in Manhattan

    IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy · Primary source

  6. [6]

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