Benefits of DES
Economic
- Reduces upfront capital costs because the equipment necessary to tie into DES network costs less than stand-alone systems
- Lower overall building operating, maintenance, and labor costs
- Passes along economies of scale when purchasing fuel
Environmental
- Central plant is more efficient than many small plants, reducing energy consumption
- Steam, hot water, and chilled water are 100 percent efficient "at the customer's door," compared with 80 percent or lower efficiencies when burning natural gas or fuel at individual buildings
- Central plants employ stringent emission controls - more so than individual buildings - providing air quality benefits
- Reduces peak electric power demand for air conditioning
Convenient
- Removes combustion 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).