|
Who founded District Energy St. Paul and why?
Who owns District Energy St. Paul?
Why did District Energy create affiliate companies?
What is district energy?
What are the main advantages of district energy?
How reliable is district energy?
What is combined heat and power?
Why is district energy good for our cities?
Who founded District Energy St. Paul and why?
District Energy was founded in 1979 (as the District Heating Development Company) by the City of Saint Paul, the St. Paul Building Owners and Managers Association and the State of Minnesota. The move was supported by business and labor organizations, Northern States Power Company (now Xcel Energy) and concerned citizens. Led by Hans Nyman, the company was founded to establish a centralized hot water district heating system to serve downtown Saint Paul and surrounding areas.
Return to the Top
Who owns District Energy St. Paul?
As a private, non-profit corporation, District Energy has no shareholders or other owners. Governance is by a Board of Directors with three City-appointed members, three customer-elected members and a seventh member chosen by the other six. An additional member elected by district cooling customers serves on the Board of District Cooling St. Paul.
Return to the Top
Why did District Energy create affiliate companies?
As word of our district heating success spread, many opportunities to grow and share our experience emerged. We created affiliate companies, each with a specific focus but all for the benefit of our existing customers. Here is a brief overview of our affiliates.
District Cooling St. Paul: a private, non-profit corporation that provides district cooling service to downtown Saint Paul building owners.
Ever-Green Energy: a for-profit corporation that was formed to develop a combined heat and power (CHP) facility in Saint Paul that would be fueled by a local, renewable fuel source—clean, urban wood waste. Today the company manages the operations of District Energy, its affiliates, and another Saint Paul district energy system. The company is also involved in a variety of projects related to renewable energy, biomass and deep water cooling.
St. Paul Cogeneration: the efficient, renewable energy CHP plant that produces hot water for District Energy and sells electricity to the local electric utility.
Environmental Wood Supply: the company that locates, collects, processes and hauls wood waste to the CHP facility.
Renewable Energy Innovations: an Ever-Green Energy affiliate that develops deep water cooling renewable energy projects.
Return to the Top
What is district energy?
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. As a result, individual buildings don't need their own boilers or furnaces, chillers or air conditioners.
Return to the Top
What are the main advantages of district energy?
A district energy system serves many customers from one location and it can accomplish things individual buildings usually cannot. 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.
Return to the Top
How reliable is district energy?
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 rate of 99.999 percent, according to the International District Energy Association.
Return to the Top
What is combined heat and power?
Combined heat and power — also known as cogeneration — is a way to increase the efficiency of power plants and reduce the amount of energy wasted into the environment. Standard power plants effectively use just 40 percent of the fuel they burn to produce electricity. The other 60 percent of the fuel used in the electric production process ends up being "waste" heat that is rejected to the environment through smokestacks and cooling towers or dumped into a river.
Combined heat and power uses this "waste" heat to heat buildings in a surrounding area through a district energy system. Combined heat and power is only possible when there is an area near the plant that has a need for the heat — a downtown area, a college campus or an industrial development.
If one of our nation's energy challenges is lack of power, what if we doubled the efficiency of as many power plants as possible and got more energy for every gallon of oil or ton of coal they burn? Combined heat and power can help us do just that — and even help the environment in the process since less heat and fewer emissions will be rejected into the atmosphere.
Return to the Top
Why is district energy good for our cities?
District cooling systems, in particular, displace peak electric power demand with steam-based cooling, district cooling, and storage using ice or chilled water. This benefits the local power grid by reducing peak power demand and alleviating power congestion due to power transmission limitations in cities. So district energy not only helps heat and cool cities, it helps alleviate the challenges posed by high electric consumption.
Return to the Top
Home > Frequently Asked Questions
|
