In many, if not in most cases, cogeneration may compete favourably with conventional power plants partly because it tends to be located close to the consumers. As a result of a fruitful collaboration between INEE and the Government, the text included the first explicit legal reference to cogeneration and district cooling/heating associated with cogeneration. This law and its ensuing decrees allow distribution utilities to buy up to 10 per cent of their energy needs directly from cogenerators and other DG sources, instead of by means of public auction.