Energy Efficiency, Fuel Flexibility Help Drive President's Nod to District Energy and Combined Heat and Power, Says IDEA

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For Immediate Release

Energy Efficiency, Fuel Flexibility Help Drive President's Nod to District Energy and Combined Heat and Power, Says IDEA

MICHIGAN, ST. PAUL, May. 17 -/E-Wire/-- President George W. Bush today toured District Energy St. Paul Inc. to view the company's district energy plant prior to announcing the

Administration's National Energy Policy, a policy expected to help encourage

additional district energy and combined heat and power development.

"District Energy St. Paul serves as an example of the potential district energy and

combined heat and power systems hold for further increasing the efficiency of heating

and cooling our nation's cities and university campuses,' says Robert P. Thornton,

president, International District Energy Association. "Energy efficiency, reliability

and fuel flexibility are district energy hallmarks - and those certainly are key to

stabilizing the country's energy future.'

One important advantage of district energy systems is their widespread use in virtually every major U.S. city and on hundreds of university campuses, airports,

hospital complexes and military bases - from Manhattan to New Orleans to Seattle to

Nome, Alaska. In many U.S. cities, the district energy system has been part of the

urban energy infrastructure for more than a century, producing steam, hot water and/or

chilled water for distribution through an underground piping network to area buildings

for heating, cooling or industrial processes.

Famous district energy customers include the U.S. Capitol Building, the Transamerica

Pyramid, Rockefeller Center, Stanford University, Harvard University, Princeton

University, the Pentagon, and Boys Town in Omaha, to name just a few.

"District energy is not a new technology in and of itself,' says Thornton. "It is

here today, it works today and we don't have to wait to test it or research it.

District energy systems are adaptable and can take advantage of new energy

technologies and ideas as they come along.'

In particular, district cooling systems are taking advantage of steam-based cooling

and ice and chilled-water storage technologies to help displace peak electric power

demand. This benefits the local power grid by reducing peak power demand and

alleviating power congestion due to power transmission limitations in cities. So

district cooling can help alleviate the challenges posed by high electric

Due to their centralized scale, district energy plants - run by skilled energy professionals - generally use fuels more efficiently than is often possible in individual boilers at multiple buildings. Reliability of the systems is high -

usually more than "five nines' (99.999 percent) - since numerous boilers and

chillers can be called on to serve a system's many customers. Plus, since a central

plant consolidates the heating and/or cooling appetites of numerous individual

buildings, economies of scale kick in and numerous fuel sources can be used - from the

conventional coal, oil and natural gas to renewables such as wood waste or combined

heat and power (cogeneration).

Combined heat and power systems provide a perfect partner for district energy systems. A standard power plant generates electricity, but nearly 60 percent of the

energy consumed to produce that electricity is considered "reject' heat that is not

used. District energy systems provide a way to "tap' the reject heat and use it more

effectively to heat customer buildings in a city or on a campus or in industrial

When the reject heat can be used for district energy, the system becomes a combined

heat and power system - generating both electricity and heat for customers. This

nearly doubles a power plant's fuel efficiency and also lowers the emissions typically

associated with standard electrical production. The less energy used, the less sulfur

dioxide and carbon dioxide expelled into the environment.

Based just outside Boston, the International District Energy Association has nearly

900 members in 18 countries. Formed in 1909, IDEA's mission is to promote energy

efficiency and environmental quality through the advancement of district heating,

cooling and combined heat and power. See IDEA's press room at www.districtenergy.org/pressroom/ for detailed information, interview opportunities

and downloadable graphics. See District Energy St. Paul's Web site for more

information on the St. Paul system at www.districtenergy.com.

Westerlund Communications

http://www.districtenergy.com

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