What is District Energy,
What is District Cooling,
Where did it originate?

District Energy is an ancient concept. Two millenniums ago, the Romans used to pump hot water through open trenches. They used this to provide piping hot water to the now famous baths, homes and other buildings in Pompeii.
Over the years, this technology was perfected and continuously improved upon, to provide what is today commercially known as District Cooling or District Heating.
District Cooling provides chilled water from a cooling plant through a network of pipes to multiple residential, industrial and commercial buildings for air conditioning use.
The world’s first commercial application of district energy was in 1877, in a district heating system in Lockport, New York. A central plant provided thermal energy in the form of steam to 14 buildings near the plant.
In 1962, in Hartford, Connecticut, the world witnessed the first commercial district cooling system application in the world, a system that started small and grew very rapidly.

District Cooling in the 1990s, how has it grown?

Most of you are aware of global climate change. The year 1998 was the hottest year in recorded history and the 1990s the hottest decade in recorded history. The cause of this climate change is attributable to increased fossil fuel burning and carbon dioxide emissions. If we become more efficient in burning fossil fuels, we can slow down climatic change and in particular global warming.
In January 1996, a production ban on chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) went into effect, and many building owners who had to switch of their chillers or buy new chillers as a result of which they did not have the capital budget to spare for such an expense. Had there been a district cooling company around then, it would have been to the benefit of the building owners, as they would have been able to avoid such a capital expenditure.

The depletion of the ozone layer due to emissions of CFC, and other types of chlorinated refrigerants, is an issue that has been a key driver behind international growth in district cooling. The refrigerants that are typically used here in the UAE have not been phased out yet, but they are targeted for phase-out in the years to come and this is going to be a continuing factor.
The trend towards outsourcing has been another reason behind the growth in District Cooling. Outsourcing is simply a term for businesses contracting out non-core activities rather than providing these in-house. This allows a business to deploy and focus it's time and assets on core activities.
The transition from an electric utility monopoly, to a market-based power sector, in the US, has also been a key driver behind the growth of District Cooling.
Many companies that are creating these systems are power or electric utility companies who see this system as a way to retain business they fear they would otherwise loose in a market-based power sector and improve overall efficiency and plant utilization.
Electric restructuring in concert with the trends toward outsourcing and environmental concerns is also fueling a renaissance for the District Energy industry.

What is the need for District Cooling,
How is it beneficial?
District cooling systems provide a variety of benefits, both qualitative and economic.
The qualitative advantage is perceived in terms of better comfort, better reliability, and maximized convenience. Mechanical cooling and air conditioning requirements are growing rapidly throughout the world, partly because there are many new buildings being built and partly because those buildings are being built in warm climates. However, no matter where those buildings are built, they tend to be tighter and more densely packed than they used to be. This creates a need for air conditioning even in very cold climates.
People are also increasingly emitting more and more heat into buildings through all types of electronic equipment that generate extra heat such as computers and various other gadgets. All this has led to a growing demand for comfort in homes and offices, a need that is directly addressed by District Cooling.
The economic benefits can be experienced by both the owner and the tenant, where the capital costs of control panels, internal power distribution, annual maintenance and power consumption inside the building are reduced, and the chillers are eliminated.

Tangible benefits:

• Better quality of cooling
• Maximum cost effectiveness
• Capital cost elimination
• Space saving
• Decrease in sound pollution
• Environmentally friendly

District Energy in the world, widespread popularity
When companies initially create a District Cooling System, it does not always cause enthusiasm in people. However once a person goes into the building and gets a feel of it, experiences it, and talks to their fellow building owners about the benefits, the word spreads, and it is part of the reason why such systems have tended to grow so rapidly.

• There are currently more than 6,000 commercial district energy systems in North America and a total of 24 new district cooling systems built in the US since 1990. Almost 2,000 colleges and universities around the US use the system, in addition to industrial parks, hospitals, airports, city and urban centers where there are tight thermal loads.

• Two major utility district cooling systems include Hartford serving over 14 million square feet of space and Minneapolis, serving over 18 million square feet of space.

• Virtually every US military installation has a district heating system, and most have district cooling systems. The US Department of Energy has announced its goal to double the nation’s use of combined heat and power by the year 2010.

• The ‘Black Triangle’, where Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic come together, and one of Europe’s most heavily industrialized regions, uses district heating system as its primary method of heating, and has a maximum output capacity of 144,650 MWt.

• District heating, which accounts for more than 38 percent of Sweden’s space heating market, is poised for a giant leap as the government has mandated nuclear phase out by 2010. 75,000 Swedish homes are expected to convert from electric heating to district heating by 2002.

• District cooling in central Stockholm, Sweden, is very unique in that most of the cooling energy produced uses cold water from the Baltic Sea. The project has been hailed both for being economically viable and environmentally sound.

• More than 70 percent of residents in Kassel, Germany are connected to the city’s district heating supply. Over the last 10 years, they have saved over 16 tons of sulfur, 36 tons of nitrogen oxide, 42 tons of carbon dioxide and 3 tons of dust.