District Energy Systems (DES)

District Energy Systems (DES) can improve your energy performance and help with your decarbonization goals by centralizing the production of thermal heating or cooling for multiple buildings located within a district, neighborhood, or campus. They can also provide heat recovery opportunities within the system by transferring recovered heat from one location to another.

By implementing a DES, you can simplify your facility’s operation and gain more control over energy costs. A DES can help improve thermal efficiency and enable the transition to low-carbon energy sources, reducing GHG emissions. The schematic below shows an example of a closed loop DES concept design developed by Prism for a BC municipality.

How Prism can help

To reduce emissions and adapt to a changing climate, organizations should review their heating and cooling options, taking the necessary steps to switch to more resilient and sustainable energy sources. Prism can help you make that transition by conducting a feasibility assessment and providing decision-makers with insights into the requirements, demands, and limitations of District Energy Systems.

From a basic site review to an in-depth analysis to estimate the potential for DES, our team of experts will investigate every possible alternative that can improve the energy performance of your buildings, lower energy costs and reduce your carbon emissions. We can then support throughout the implementation of the project, from detailed design to commissioning and performance verification.

“ The thing I am most proud of from our work with Prism to date is a combination of all the different projects coming together. The Central Heating Plant has a been a dream for this campus for quite a long time. We were super excited to see it coming together and to see there is going to be 25% GHG emissions reduction, which is quite massive for any institution of this size. So, it’s going to be major savings.”

— Dwayne Doornbosch, Director Facilities, Langara College, on the campus District Energy System that Prism has designed