Industry
News
Veolia Energy to Acquire
Thermal North America Inc.
Veolia Energy and TNAI Holdings LLC
announced June 12 an agreement under
which Veolia Energy North America will
acquire from TNAI Holdings all of the capital stock of Thermal North America Inc.
(TNAI), the holding company for The Trigen
Companies. Veolia Energy, which includes
affiliate company Dalkia, is the energy
services division of Veolia Environnement.
With an enterprise value of $788 million,
the acquisition of TNAI represents Veolia
Energy’s largest acquisition in North America
to date.
Through its Trigen subsidiaries, TNAI is
the owner and operator of the largest portfolio of district energy systems in the Unted
States, serving more than 1,100 customers
with a mix of energy products – electricity,
steam, hot water and chilled water. TNAI
operates in 11 major U.S. cities: Atlanta;
Baltimore; Boston; Kansas City; Las Vegas;
Los Angeles; Oklahoma City; Philadelphia;
St. Louis; Trenton, N.J.; and Tulsa, Okla.
Lance Ahearn, chief executive officer of
The Trigen Companies, said, “With decades
of district energy operating experience in
Europe, Veolia will offer its unrivaled expertise
and innovative best practices to the marketplace and will become the major player in
the United States once the acquisition is
consummated…Our customers will continue
to be served locally by experienced staff at
the central plants, but they will gain the
financial support and expertise of a large,
global company that is focused on providing
energy services.”
Veolia Energy is already present in North
America through Dalkia, which acquired the
steam distribution network in Cambridge,
Mass., in 2005. In 2006 Dalkia signed a
partnership agreement with Gaz Metro to
develop district heating networks in Canada.
Under the agreement, Dalkia owns and
operates Montreal’s district heating network,
one of the biggest in North America. Through
Dalkia, Veolia Energy is the leading European
provider of energy services to local authorities and businesses.
Veolia Environnement has operations
in water, waste, energy and transportation
management, with more than 270,000
employees in 64 countries. The company’s
recorded revenues in 2006 were $37.7 billion.
Veolia Environnement’s North American
operations have 30,000 employees and
produced sales of $3.5 billion in 2006.
New Waste-Fueled CHP Plant
in Sweden
Fortum Corp. plans to invest in a new
waste-fueled combined heat and power
plant in Sweden. The new plant is expected
to be operational by early 2011. Fortum
Värme, owned by Fortum and the City of
Stockholm, will apply for permission to
build and operate the new plant in Brista,
outside Stockholm, in conjunction with its
existing bio-fueled power plant in the
same city.
Fortum’s investment in the project will
be approximately 110 million euros ($149
million). The new plant will be able to process
240,000 tons of waste annually. The plant
will have the capacity to produce approximately 57 MW of heat and 20 MW of
electricity – equivalent to the demand of a
medium-sized Swedish town.
Fortum Värme’s district heating network meets approximately 75 percent of
the heat demand in Stockholm. Some 75
percent of that energy is produced using
renewable sources.
IEA Holds CHP/District
Energy Workshop
The International Energy Agency (IEA)
sponsored a workshop March 2 in Paris on
combined heat and power as part of its goal
to promote more efficient use of energy.
The invitation-only event brought together
more than 50 experts from the CHP and
district energy industries, governments and
other organizations to provide input for the
IEA’s new initiative to raise the profile of CHP
and district energy as clean energy solutions.
During the workshop’s three sessions,
participants learned about IEA’s mandate
and the status of CHP/district energy
advancement, provided their feedback and
perspectives, then discussed and approved
a detailed work plan and budget for IEA’s
initiative.
New FlowCom™ Register
McCrometer has released the new
digital FlowCom Register Model FC100
with an advanced low-power microprocessor design. The FC100 provides simultaneous flow rate and volumetric totalized flow
data for the company’s Mc® Propeller series
flow meter in a wide range of water-mon-itoring applications. Designed to replace
electro-mechanical counters, this product
features an easy-to-read two-line display
and can be specified for either local direct
meter reading or for remote operation
FlowCom Register Model FC100
monitoring. When configured for remote
monitoring, the FC100 is suitable for service
in confined spaces where hazardous combustible or toxic gases may be present as
well as in large SCADA systems distributed
over a wide geographic area. The FC100
digital display retrofits with any Mc Propeller
flow meter. For more information, visit
www.mccrometer.com.
Slovenia to Increase
Renewable Energy
Slovenia will increase its share of renewable energy sources by 2020 in line with the
European Union’s Directive for Renewable
Energy Sources, according to Slovenia
Business Week. That commitment was
announced March 19 by Hinko Suhinc of
Slovenia’s Environment Ministry at a district
energy conference in Portoroz. Suhinc noted
