The Eco-District - Transforming the Utility Business Model
(Room 214B)
30 Jan 20
8:45 AM
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9:15 AM
Today the built environment accounts for approximately forty percent of the carbon consumption. Aside from energy efficiency tariffs, the utility has limited visibility to actively manage energy consumption on the customer side of the meter. For commercial customers this is further complicated by limits of the tenant lease which provides little incentive to conserve energy.
Developers are driven to build products which attract investors and tenants interested in reducing their life-cycle cost and minimize their impact on the environment. To address this need, a cottage industry has been built around developing, certifying and building net-zero carbon free developments. The historical challenge has been around building these developments to be cost effective.
To address these challenges, Avista in partnership with McKinstry is developing an eco-district to provide economical net-zero carbon-free developments which reduce the need for system capacity and improve grid utilization. The eco-district deploys a central plant an old idea but adds a new twist. The eco-district central plant will centralize the buildings HVAC systems in the HUB. The HUB will provide condition environment to the buildings participating in the eco-district.