Members
Speak Out
Is District Energy
for Everyone?
David W. Wade, PE, President, RDA Engineering Inc.
Editor's Note: "Members Speak Out" runs
in each issue of District Energy magazine.
Its purpose is for a member to briefly share
his/her district energy experiences and opinions – and obtain feedback from fellow
members. Please email comments to David
Wade at dww@rdaeng.com.
Is district energy for everyone? As an advocate for district energy, my initial response is Y-E-S. After all, we know
that district energy is cost-effective, uses
less energy than conventional systems and
is both locally and globally good for the
environment. With all those positive attributes, district energy should be for everyone.
But everyone doesn’t use district energy,
despite its advantages, and the industry
should explore why – and what can be
done about it. District energy systems are
capital-intensive, require high building
densities, must be planned in advance
and require the commitment of a develop-er-operator for long-term success. That
means poorer countries are less likely to
adopt the technology, and areas where
energy use is low and buildings are spread
out will not find district energy attractive.
Even in the United States, where we consider ourselves advanced, our economic
system encourages individual developers
and profit-driven finance, which reduce
the likelihood that district energy systems
will be implemented.
Much of the world, however, lives in
cities with high building density and planned
development. Shouldn’t the benefits of
energy efficiency and environmental benefits
lead them to wide-scale adoption of district
energy technology?
My firm recently participated in a proposal to a government redevelopment
authority located in the Far East. With
numerous large development projects in
the planning stages, the authority sought
confirmation that district energy should be
adopted as the heating and cooling energy
source for millions of square meters of
residential, office and community buildings.
Cost is certainly a consideration; but beyond
cost, questions about district energy’s energy
efficiency, energy resource utilization and
long-term environmental impact also need to
be answered before a commitment is made.
Questions about district energy’s
energy efficiency, energy
resource utilization and long-
term environmental impact
also need to be answered.
ance is available to help a decision maker
quantify a district energy system’s benefits.
Our industry’s claims of energy efficiency
and environmental benefits don’t seem to
be backed up by cold, hard facts.
In 2008 IDEA participated in the International Energy Agency report “Assessing
the Actual Energy Efficiency of Building
Scale Cooling Systems.” This effort is a
start but leaves much to be answered when
assessing the actual energy savings that
can be achieved by a district energy system.
Even less information is available on real-world operating efficiencies of central
energy plants. Our own industry’s collection
and publication of industry statistics seems
to have taken a back seat to other pressing
issues. With billions of dollars being committed to future energy systems in the fields
of solar, wind, biomass, etc., I believe it is
important that our industry establish a
firm basis for district energy’s benefits and
use that information to influence decisions
being made now that will affect us all in
coming decades.
Now is the time for IDEA to reach out
with our colleagues – ASHRAE, APPA, BOMA
and numerous organizations promoting
energy efficiency – to seek funding from
DOE to establish the actual performance
of district energy systems and compare it
to the best individual building systems being
designed and constructed today. Information
that could be gathered, analyzed and published in a short time period can provide a
firm foundation for increased adoption of
district energy technologies.
With so much at stake in the future,
how can we afford to make decisions
without all the facts? And without more
quantifiable information, how can we most
effectively promote the growth of our
industry at home and abroad?
When putting together the proposal,
I was surprised at how little information is
available comparing individual building
heating and cooling plants versus a district
energy system. Certainly a substantial body
of information exists in ASHRAE and the
U.S. Department of Energy on building
energy use, but almost no definitive guid-
David W. Wade, PE, is president of RDA Engineering Inc.
in Atlanta and has been an
IDEA member for more than
25 years. He has served on
IDEA's board and is a past
chair of ASHRAE's national
technical committees dealing
with building steam and hot water systems and
district heating and cooling. Wade may be
reached at dww@rdaeng.com.
