District Energy: Now's the Time!

This new video produced by the nonprofit International District Energy Association (www.districtenergy.com) explains with dynamic graphic effects the principles and value of "district energy" in solving energy efficiency, reliability, and environmental issues related to energy generation and use.

District energy is a proven technology that has been employed since the late 1800s. District energy systems produce steam, hot water or chilled water in a central plant and then pipe that energy out to buildings in the district for space heating, domestic hot water heating and air conditioning. As a result, individual build ings don't need their own boilers or furnaces, chillers or air conditioners. An increasing number of district energy plants also generate electricity by capturing and using the waste heat from exhaust gases from boilers and gas turbines.

The scale of the central plant in a district energy system enables operators to achieve economical benefits that distributed systems in individual buildings cannot. For example, district energy systems can use and switch among a variety of conventional fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas, whichever fuel is most competitive at the time. In addition, many plants have also transitioned to sustainable fuels, such as biomass, geothermal, and landfill gas. District energy plants that capture and use the waste heat from furnaces and gas turbines to produce electricity approximately doubling the overall efficiency of the plant..

Buildings connected to district energy systems have lower capital costs for their energy equipment because they dont need conventional boilers and chillers. They save valuable upfront dollars they can invest elsewhere. Plus, they can use building space that previously was devoted to furnaces and chillers for other purposes.

District energy systems have superior reliability records, 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).

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• district
• energy;
• sustainable
• efficiency;
• cooling;
• chillers;
• boilers;
• CHP;
• combined
• heat
• and
• power;
• multi-fuel;
• distribution
• system;
• steam