What Is District Energy?
IDEA Industry
White Paper (updated November 11, 2005)
Click here (3.27 MB PDF) for an overview of the District Energy Industry in North
America.
 District
energy systems produce steam, hot water or chilled water at
a central plant and then pipe that energy out to buildings
in the district for space heating, domestic hot water heating
and air conditioning. Individual buildings don't need their
own boilers or furnaces, chillers or air conditioners. A district
energy system does that work for them.
The
beauty of a district energy system is that since it serves
so many customers from one location, it can accomplish things
individual buildings usually cannot. For instance, district
energy systems can use a variety of conventional fuels such
as coal, oil and natural gas, whichever fuel is most competitive
at the time. And because of a district energy system’s
size, the district energy plant can also transition to use
renewable fuels such as biomass, geothermal, and combined
heat and power.
Buildings
connected to district energy systems also have lower capital
costs for their energy equipment because they don’t need
conventional boilers and chillers. They save valuable upfront
dollars they can invest elsewhere. Plus, they save building
space that can be used for other more valuable purposes.
Building
owners and managers can count on district energy systems since
energy professionals operate around-the-clock and have backup
systems readily available. Most district energy systems operate
at a reliability of "five nines" (99.999 percent).
To IDEA’s knowledge, there have been no rolling "heat-outs"
related to district energy systems.
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