About District Energy
District energy (DE) systems centralize the production of thermal heating or cooling for multiple buildings located within a district, neighborhood, or campus. University campuses, Like UBC, are often ideal candidates for district energy systems.
Centralized thermal plants can efficiently produce hot water, chilled water, and steam from a variety of energy sources, including renewable sources. From these centralized plants, hot and/or chilled water (or steam) is transported through an underground system of insulated pipes to individual buildings, where it’s used for space heating and cooling, and domestic hot water heating.