text: In the majority of energy applications, energy is required in multiple forms.  These energy forms typically include some combination of: heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, mechanical energy and electric power.  Often, these additional forms of energy are produced by a heat engine, running on a source of high-temperature heat.  A heat engine can never have perfect efficiency, according to the second law of thermodynamics, therefore a heat engine will always produce a surplus of low-temperature heat.  This is commonly referred to as waste heat or "secondary heat", or "low-grade heat".  This heat is useful for the majority of heating applications, however, it is sometimes not practical to transport heat energy over long distances, unlike electricity or fuel energy. The largest proportions of total waste heat are from power stations and vehicle engines.  The largest single sources are power stations and industrial plants such as oil refineries and steelmaking plants.