| Veolia Energy Philadelphia Philadelphia, USA   PDF Summary |
Veolia Energy Philadelphia’s Green Steam Conversion reflects extensive infrastructure upgrades at the Philadelphia district network, which simultaneously increased our operating efficiency and reduced our environmental impact, benefiting the 500+ buildings (100 million sq. ft. of space) on Philadelphia’s 41 miles of district energy network.In 2008, the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), our largest US customer, was up for contract renewal. As one of the original signatories of the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, Penn is an environmental leader, including energy generation and procurement. Veolia Energy and Penn sought to overcome the challenge of the high cost and environmental impact of burning #6 and #2 fuel oil in Veolia Energy’s generating assets. In addition to fuel sourcing and pricing transparency, Penn also sought to maintain reliability by reducing the time to power back-up systems.After an extensive technology, efficiency and operational review, Veolia Energy determined that it could accomplish Penn’s goals through a change in equipment dispatch, which relied upon two significant capital investments: $30 million investment in two 250,000 pph rapid-response boilers; $30 million investment in the expansion of a lateral in the TETCO natural gas pipeline that eliminated a restriction on firm gas supply.This project is not only an innovative solution to Penn’s current energy needs, but also incorporates the flexibility for expansion. Other major institutional users are driving growth with highly specialized medical and R&D uses that require the multiple levels of redundancy that Veolia provides. These institutions now constitute 30% of Philadelphia’s local employment, increasing 20% over the past decade. These innovative Green Steam upgrades literally fuel the City of Philadelphia’s growth sectors. The benefits are not only economic and environmental, but also increased reliability for our customers. Firm gas supply provides sufficient natural gas for 100% of capacity during peak thermal demand in the winter months, enabling increased loading of the CHP so that 100% of district energy can be fueled using our 163 MW cogeneration plant. The primary role of the rapid-response boilers is to reduce the need to idle to maintain standby steam pressure. Veolia’s $60M investment achieved environmental savings of 1.4 million MT GHG and energy savings of 4.9 million MMBTU over the project life. |