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Not only can they extract more energy by using the waste heat, that some power plants use for something but most do not, but onsight power production also saves on the costs and losses of transmission.

Between 2 and 10 percent of all generated electricity is lost in transmission. these losses come from the following: resistive heating of hundreds of miles of cable, inductive coupling of power to the surrounding environment, and minor losses in the step-up and step-down processes.

Further, you have those millions of poles, acres of distribution points, thousands and thousands of miles of cable, thousands of service trucks, mllions of oil filled transformers, and a few other miner details impacting the cost and overall efficiency.

Compare all that to having natural gas exhaust coming out of each building, gas pipelines, heat exchangers, maintenance on each setup, and additional building space and infrastructure in each location instead of one remote site.

On top of these, you have the added cost in lives from our current centralized power system. HOw many people have died because they ran into a power pole? Without centralized power our streets could be wider and safer....

Umm...care to address the need to maintenance expenses associated for DG, the ongoing price of diesel or compressed natural gas as well as the other costs?

Hey, if you're in LIPA territory, sure CHP or DG may make sense. But at a cost to operate around $0.06 per kWh plus the cap-ex, CHP and/or DG doesn't work in most areas of the country unless the bill is covered by the gas companies, etc.

On top of these, you have the added cost in lives from our current centralized power system. HOw many people have died because they ran into a power pole? Without centralized power our streets could be wider and safer....

Some, not a lot, comparatively speaking. If there is widespread adopotion of home-based generators using NG or hydrogen, there will be lives lost because of gas explosions (there are now, in fact), transportation accidents, etc. Compare the number of people killed in gas explosions to those killed by accidents involving electrical transmission (touching wires by accident, for example). Point is, there are risks associated with any technology. If you play, you pay, one way or the other.