Montpelier, Vermont

District Heat Montpelier

Energy System Design and Development for Improved Environmental Outcomes

The City of Montpelier, Vermont, developed and constructed a hot water district heating system to serve city, state, federal, and private buildings within the community. The heat source for the hot water system is a state-owned biomass-fired boiler.

Ever-Green’s Role

To successfully complete this project, the City turned to Ever-Green Energy to develop the business structures, customer contracts, energy services rate structure, and community relations plan for the development of the district energy system. Ever-Green also designed the hot water pipe distribution system installed in the city streets, trained City Public Works staff on the operations and maintenance of the system, and trained system customers on the efficient utilization of the delivered energy.

Customer and Community Outreach

Project development included outreach to the private business community to include them as customers of the district energy system. Ever-Green worked with City leadership to develop a system plan that extended beyond the initial scale to serve private and public buildings in a more cost effective manner while also eliminating oil combustion and greenhouse gas emissions at many local businesses.

Development of the district energy system occurred in a fully developed downtown district corridor. Customers, City leadership, and the general community had significant concerns about the potential negative impact of implementing the district system through downtown. Ever-Green Energy worked with City leadership to integrate community concerns and minimize the impact of implementation throughout construction.

Stakeholders

City of Montpelier, Montpelier Public Schools, State of Vermont, US Department of Energy, Vermont Clean Energy Development Fund, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Vermont Economic Development Authority, private customers