CDEA

Canadian District Energy Association

District Energy, also known as District heating and cooling, is the technology for providing heating (and possibly other forms of energy) from a central plant to multiple users. The most common district energy technology originally used piped steam to distribute the energy, but nowadays lower pressure hot water in flexible plastic piping can be used effectively to distribute heating and cooling energy. District energy can save money for the users, conserve resources, reduce pollution, and open up many options for flexible and sustainable energy solutions in the future.

District energy has a number of advantages over energy systems that serve only one user:

Central plants tend to be much more efficient than many small plants, so energy consumption is reduced.
Central plants have to meet strict emission standards, so environmental effects are better controlled than with many smaller units.
District energy removes combustion equipment from buildings, saving space in the buildings, and removing a real source of possible indoor air quality contamination.
District energy systems can be flexible-fueled, which means they can burn whatever fuel is most economical and/or environmentally sound at the time.
District energy systems present an opportunity for cogeneration or generation of electricity in a highly efficient process that utilizes the heat normally wasted in power generation.

For more information on district energy contact:

Canadian District Energy Association
555 Richmond St. W., Ste. 402
PO Box 612
Toronto, ON M5V 3B1
T: 416-365-0765
F: 416-365-0650
E: cdea@canurb.com
http://www.cdea.ca

This home-page was not specifically authorized by CDEA at the time of publication, and information contained in it was verified by other parties.

For queries or suggestions, please forward to:

APPrO, Association of Power Producers of Ontario,
PO Box 1084 Station F, Toronto, Ontario, M4Y 2T7 Canada.
Street address: 25 Adelaide St. East, Suite 1602, Toronto, Ontario M5C 3A1
(416) 322-6549 fax 416-481-5785 Internet e-mail: appro@appro.org

Last update: 10 May 2007 URL:http://www.appro.org/cdea.html