Community volunteers, with the help of nonprofit and private sector, create urban pollinator habitat in Point Breeze park
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Whether buildings use district chilled water or operate onsite chillers and cooling towers, regularly reviewing and implementing this guide ensures proactive building readiness for summer temperatures, helps maximize equipment lifespan, and improves overall energy efficiency.
Print out this summer preparedness checklist and review it every spring to prepare staff and equipment for the coming warm temperatures. Please note that the steps will vary depending on the equipment present onsite.
Vicinity leverages best practices at its central facilities to provide a smooth transition into the summer season. These protocols ensure safe, reliable, and consistent operation to prevent service disruptions for customers who leverage chilled water or steam for cooling purposes. Vicinity’s interconnected energy facilities offer 99.99% uptime energy delivery with resiliency through redundant power and fuel sources.
Vicinity’s summer preparedness includes extensive cooling tower and chiller inspection and cleaning at Vicinity’s central facilities that produce chilled water, including basin cleaning, sterilization to prevent bacteria growth, and oil inspections on gearboxes and fan belts. Vicinity also performs eddy current testing to detect leaks on chiller tubes and inspects refrigerant and oil samples. By taking these proactive steps, Vicinity delivers reliable customer service year-round and reduces the maintenance needed onsite at customers’ buildings.
In this episode of the Pumps & Systems podcast, Bill DiCroce, President and Chief Executive Officer of Vicinity Energy discussed the role heat pumps can play in decarbonization, as well as the efforts cities like Boston are currently making to strive for sustainability and an eventual goal of net zero carbon emissions.
To enhance preparedness, we encourage you to utilize our emergency winter weather preparedness checklist. Regularly reviewing and implementing this guide ensures proactive building readiness for winter conditions. It safeguards against potential freeze-ups in steam and sprinkler systems, mitigates the risk of roof collapses due to heavy snowfall, and protects against potential flooding during extremely cold temperatures. These risks present safety concerns and entail substantial financial and time investments in repairs, with the possible consequence of building shutdowns.
Print out this emergency winter weather preparedness checklist and review it every winter to prepare staff and equipment.
Vicinity has rigorous cold weather protocols to ensure safe, reliable, and consistent operation of its facilities to prevent service disruptions. Our interconnected energy facilities offer 99.99% uptime energy delivery through multiple power supplies, backup generation, and several water and fuel sources in case of interruptions to other utilities.
Vicinity’s winter weather protocol includes:
Industrial-scale heat pumps are revolutionizing the energy industry. With the ability to produce temperatures of up to 150C, these powerful systems have become a sustainable solution across the globe. As the demand for carbon-free heating increases, the shift away from fossil fuels is finally gaining momentum.
Vicinity is transforming district energy by installing an industrial-scale heat complex. This innovative heat pump complex will draw heat from nearby water sources to generate steam and improve the system’s efficiency. Ensuring that the river and its ecosystems remain unharmed, the river intake system lifts heat from the river and brings it into our facilities.
Industrial-scale heat pumps will be installed in cities around the country where Vicinity’s facilities are located near water sources and already employ water intake systems. These heat pumps will extract heat from adjacent water sources, like the Charles and Schuylkill Rivers, to generate steam and improve the system’s overall efficiency.
Across all of our operations, heat pumps will be used with electric boilers and thermal storage technologies to fully decarbonize our operations.
This first heat pump complex in Cambridge will be powered by renewable electricity to efficiently harvest energy from the Charles River and return the water to a lower temperature.
The global energy transition can only succeed with decarbonizing heat. Why? Heating in buildings is responsible for four gigatons (Gt) of CO2 emissions annually—10% of global emissions, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The heating sector accounts for 30-40% of CO2 emissions globally.
Water-source heat pumps are a proven solution to fossil- fuel-driven heating because they can efficiently harness the renewable power of water sources.
In 2021, approximately 10% percent of the global demand for space heating was satisfied by heat pumps. In some countries such as Norway, Sweden, and Finland, heat pumps are the most widely used heating source and have already begun integrating with district energy systems. The district system in Glasgow will leverage heat pumps to extract cold water from the adjacent River Clyde. This will cover over 80% of building heat demand and will deliver immediate carbon reductions of 50%.
By installing industrial-scale heat pumps at our central facilities, Vicinity is one step closer to instantly decarbonizing millions of square feet of building space for the good of our customers, communities, and the cities we operate. The impact of this plan is substantial: by 2035, Vicinity’s investments at our Kendall, MA facility will reduce the carbon intensity of our steam by 50%, the equivalent of 400,000 tons.
Steam traps are critical components of steam systems and play a vital role in maintaining their efficiency and safety. Steam traps collect condensate to prevent corrosion caused by built-up moisture and ensure high-quality, dry steam flows through the steam system. Steam traps also block the escape of live steam, minimizing energy waste. Regular maintenance and monitoring are essential to ensure they function correctly and prevent issues that can lead to energy waste, equipment damage, and safety hazards.
Vicinity’s steam trap inspections offer the following benefits:
Partnering with our customers, Vicinity tailors each approach specifically to the unique needs of the building. The process of performing steam trap inspections typically includes the following steps:
When steam traps fail and steam escapes, systems demand more steam to operate. Steam trap inspections improve the overall operating performance of steam systems, minimizing the amount of energy waste and the associated carbon emissions.
Leaking steam traps result in significant lost capital over the life of the equipment. Analysis by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Boiler Efficiency Institute shows that repairing a faulty steam trap could save thousands of dollars annually. Steam trap inspections represent an opportunity for customers to reduce energy consumption and operating costs.
Safety is our primary focus. With Vicinity’s trained technicians conducting the inspections, customers can rest assured that the proper measures are in place to safely conduct and identify any steam trap hazards that can lead to a water hammer event. A water hammer event occurs when a failed steam trap allows condensate to build in the steam main. As steam passes over and combines with the excess condensate, it creates a pressure event that can lead to undesirable noise, damaged equipment, and—in worst cases—injury.
Vicinity Energy is the largest provider of district energy solutions in the U.S. We contribute to a cleaner environment by providing highly reliable, sustainable energy solutions.
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