District Energy - 2008 Third Quarter

stituents. More than 850 mayors and 550-plus American college and university presidents have taken leadership pledges to reduce carbon footprints. Today, rapidly escalating energy and fuel costs are stimulating heightened interest in more sustainable energy solutions for cities and campuses.

District energy systems should be
a primary near-term energy sup-
ply strategy and certainly should
not be compromised by unin-
tended consequences of poorly
designed carbon trading schemes.

Around the world, growing demand for more reliable power supplies are driving huge investments in district cooling systems and stimulating expansion of combined heat and power. Through the upgrade or repow-ering of a central plant, a district energy system can deliver millions of square feet of building conversions to renewable or low-carbon fuels. District energy systems should be a primary near-term energy supply strategy and certainly should not be compromised by unintended consequences of poorly designed carbon trading schemes.

Coming Together
With Common Goals

As our industry expands at a record pace

in the Middle East, there is growing need for integrating district energy with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED^TM) standards for customer buildings. In the U.S., IDEA is expanding our dialogue with the U.S. Green Buildings Council to try to influence better recognition of favorable district energy impacts on highly efficient buildings. For instance, cleaner, more efficient district cooling service that dramatically flattens peak electric demand in a customer building should not be disadvantaged by a point system that rewards installation of an in-building chiller plant, regardless of comparative efficiency. As standards for green buildings evolve in the UAE and elsewhere in the Middle East, it will be important for IDEA to support a productive collaboration that properly quan-tifies the market advantages of district cooling in a more sustainable city.

IDEA will be distributing the District Cooling Best Practice Guide (BPG) at the upcoming International District Cooling Conference “Essential Infrastructure, Sustainable City” – our third conference in the region – that will be held in Dubai Oct. 19-22, 2008. The BPG has taken much longer than originally expected and has involved thousands of man-hours of development, peer review and technical resources. It is designed to impart practical, hands-on experience in designing, constructing, operating and maintaining district cooling systems.

Rather than focus solely on technical design standards, the BPG is 400-plus pages of guidance on highly relevant business topics

such as load forecasting, rate design, capacity factors, distribution and building interface, measurement and metering, and a host of other practical issues. Given the level of investment, IDEA will be actively promoting the BPG around the world and plans to initiate a series of workshops and training seminars to support sales of the guide.

In planning for our centennial conference next June 28-July 1, 2009, in Washington, D.C., IDEA intends to bring together the world community to demonstrate the depth and diversity of technical solutions in our industry. Working with colleagues in EPA, DOE, IEA and Euroheat & Power, we hope to welcome policy leaders and industry champions from around the world to celebrate our 100-year anniversary and reinforce the importance of district energy/CHP in an era of declining energy resources and increasing fuel costs.

As we head into our second century, IDEA remains committed to informing our members and important constituencies, connecting people and technical resources, and advancing the best interests of the district energy industry.