District Energy Systems
Benefits of DES
Economic
- Reduces upfront capital costs because the equipment necessary to tie into the DES system costs less than stand-alone systems
- Lower overall building operating, maintenance, and labor costs
- Passes along economies of scale when purchasing fuel
Environmental
- A central plant serving multiple customers is more efficient than individual small plants, thereby reducing overall energy consumption
- Virtually 100% of the steam and chilled water energy delivered to the customer is available for use within his facility whereas smaller in-building boilers and air-cooled chiller systems can require up to 50% more energy to deliver the same heating or cooling benefit
- Central plants employ stringent emission controls - more so than individual buildings - providing air quality benefits
- Chilled water services from a central plant reduces peak electric power demand for air conditioning
Convenient
- Removes combustion and refrigerant equipment from buildings, saving space in the buildings for other uses and removing a real source of possible indoor air quality contamination
- Eliminates need for boilers and chillers resulting in less maintenance, monitoring and equipment permitting
- Energy professionals at central plants operate around the clock and have backup systems available, with reliability rates near 99.9 percent
- Building operators can manage and control their own indoor environments because district energy is available whenever heating or cooling is needed (i.e. - the air conditioning can be turned on for an unseasonably warm January day)