Patent ID: 6988024

Claim:
A cogeneration system, comprising: a cogeneration facility for generating power and heat; a plurality of consuming apparatuses consuming the power and/or heat generated by the cogeneration facility; and an operation controller for controlling the operation of the cogeneration facility; wherein the consuming apparatuses include a first consuming apparatus capable of automatically transmitting operation schedule information of its own to the operation controller, and a second consuming apparatus incapable of automatically transmitting the operation schedule information of its own; the operation controller compares an operation starting time (t 1 ) of the consuming apparatuses based on the operation schedule information collected from the first consuming apparatus and a consumption starting time (t 2 ) based on the prediction of a total power and/or heat consumption of the first and second consuming apparatuses; and an actual operation starting time of the cogeneration facility is determined with priority given to the operation starting time (t 1 ) if the operation starting time (t 1 ) is earlier than the consumption starting time (t 2 ) while being determined with priority given to the consumption starting time (t 2 ) if the operation starting time (t 1 ) is later than the consumption starting time (t 2 ).