July 2002 Demolition at New Site BeginsAugust 2002 CES Mobilizes for Construction

October 2002 DES Bonds Sell for $66.7 MillionNovember 11, 2002 Groundbreaking Ceremony

Construction Officially BeginsFirst Quarter 2003 Retaining Walls Complete

Begin Steel ErectionBegin Installing Distribution System Interconnection

Second Quarter 2003 Major Equipment Arrives (boilers, chillers, pumps)Third Quarter 2003 Finish Distribution System Interconnection

Second Quarter 2004 Testing on New DES Facility BeginsJuly 2004 Target Date for DES Commercial Operations

In November, Mayor Bill Purcell andother city leaders broke ground forMetro Nashville’s new District EnergySystem facility.

Downtown Nashville is entering a verydynamic period, and the new DESfacility will play an important role incontributing to downtown growth anddevelopment.

This first issue of the DES newsletter ismeant to be a tool for providing newsand up-to-date information about district energy in Nashville to Metroofficials, Nashville Thermal TransferCorporation (Thermal) customers andother members of the Nashville

community who have an interest in thenew DES facility.

In this issue we profile our newest district energy customer, Hume-FoggAcademic High School, and we take alook at Baltimore, Maryland, wheredistrict energy has played a major rolein downtown development.

Our goal is to keep you informed aboutthe progress of construction on the newfacility, as well as how things are operating at the old Thermal facility,and to make you aware of the opportu-nities that district energy makes possiblefor downtown Nashville.

A PUBLICATION OF METRO NASHVILLE DISTRICT ENERGY SYSTEM WINTER 2003

Bill PurcellMetro Nashville Mayor

When I took office asMayor of Nashville,I believed that therewere tremendous opportunities forgrowth and development in thedowntown area, and an importantearly step in realizing those opportu-nities was getting a handle on theThermal Transfer Plant and our dis-trict energy system.

Metro has been in the district energybusiness for nearly 30 years, withThermal serving as a vital part of ourdowntown infrastructure, and as aninnovative heating and cooling alter-native for downtown buildings. Butover the past several years, its esca-lating costs and unreliability weresigns that its customers and the cityneeded to move forward.

I am happy to report we are movingin the right direction with districtenergy.

On November 11, 2002, when webroke ground for the new DistrictEnergy System, we began theprocess of passing the torch fromThermal to a new, state-of-the-artfacility that will become an anchor ofthe Gateway development projectthat is going to literally transform anentire section of Nashville all theway up Rolling Mill Hill.

These are exciting times for downtown Nashville. I believe thatin a very few years, we will lookback at this moment as the beginning of a dynamic period ofgrowth and development that will transform this part of our city. I amproud of the important role that ourdistrict energy system will play inthat development.

Mayor Purcell Breaks Ground onNew Energy Facility

New DES FacilityPart of DowntownVision

All the buildings on the site have beendemolished and CES has made tremendous progress.

Construction Timeline

It’s a Fact:

The decision to stop burning garbage at Thermal will ultimatelysave Davidson County taxpayers more than $184 million over thenext 20 years, resulting from the lower cost of waste disposal andthe lower cost of heating and cooling downtown buildings.

(Left to right) Richard Fletcher, Chase Cole and Mayor Purcell joined other communityleaders to break ground on the site of the new DES facility on November 11.

w.nashville.gov/des � www.nashville.gov/des � www.nashville.gov/des � www.nashville.gov/des � www.nashville.gov/des � www.nashville.gov/des � www.nashville.

CES SUBCONTRACTORSEverton Oglesby Askew Architect

Nashville Machine Company Mechanical ConstructorR.C. Mathews Construction Manager

Smith Seckman Reid Design EngineerTravis Electric Electrical Contractor

PRSRT STDU.S. POSTAGE

PAIDNASHVILLE TN

PERMIT NO.

777

90 Peabody StreetNashville, Tennessee 37217

Unlike Nashville, whose heating andcooling through district energy datesback to the early ‘70s, the downtowndistrict of Baltimore, Md., was filledwith many buildings that relied ontheir own equip-ment for air condi-tioning less than adecade ago.

Centralized systems have been providing steam to heat Baltimorebuildings for more than 100 years,but the idea of district chilled waterservice was new to the city, andBaltimore welcomed the coolingopportunity in the form of theBaltimore District Steam System,which began operations in 1996 as apartnership between Baltimore Gasand Electric, Poole and KentCompany, Constellation EnergySource and Comfort Link.

Since that time, the system hasenjoyed steady growth in all areas.The number of new customers connected grew an astonishing 100percent in 1999. Currently, the systemboasts a 99.999 percent reliability rating, serving more than 25 buildingsthat occupy some 10 million squarefeet of downtown Baltimore.

“Although we built the facility rightinto the existing downtown businesscommunity, connecting customers tothe system made way for economicdevelopment,” said Stanley Gent,Comfort Link president, “becausethe very fact that building ownersand managers don’t have to pur-chase and maintain self-containedheating and cooling units reducedthe overall building/reconstructioncosts and created opportunity forfurther commercial development.”

In a recent Comfort Link survey, 86percent of customers polled gave thehighest marks possible for overallsatisfaction with the operation ofand their relationship with theBaltimore District Steam System.

In 1970, Nashville Mayor Beverly Brileybegan studying the feasibility of build-ing a plant that would address the city’ssolid waste disposal needs and recap-ture energy to heat and cool buildings inthe downtown area. A year later, theNashville Thermal TransferCorporation (Thermal), a not-for-profitorganization, was established to build,own, and operate a $16.5 million DistrictEnergy System (DES).

The Thermal plantbegan operations inFebruary 1974, mak-ing Nashville thefirst city in theworld to use solidwaste as an energysource for both heat-ing and cooling.The energy createdby this waste-burn-ing process wasused to generatesteam, which wasthen used to heat

downtown buildings, or to producechilled water to cool the buildings.

Despite several costly expansions andupgrades to improve operations and toincrease its capacity during its 30-yearlife span, the Thermal facility struggledto meet pollution restrictions and toremain economically viable.

So, in December 2001, Metro Councilvoted to close the Thermal plant by

2004, and Mayor Bill Purcell announcedplans to modify energy production froma solid waste-fired system to a fossil fuelsystem by 2004.

Metro funded its new DES with $66.7million in project revenue bonds.

As part of the scheduled closing, theplant was to start fueling the facilitywith natural gas instead of trash byOctober 2002. This process was acceler-ated by a major fire in the facility onMay 23, 2002, which immediately haltedthe burning of trash. The plant was backin operation only one working day afterthe fire and continued to operate as anatural gas-fired facility, producingsteam and chilled water as before.

Constellation Energy Source (CES) ofBaltimore, Md., has been contracted tobuild, operate, manage and maintainthe new DES facility. CES is currentlymanaging Thermal’s operations and hasalready drastically improved the efficiency and reliability of the existingfacility. Because of the hard work ofCES and others involved, the DES project is on budget and on schedule toopen in summer 2004.

History:District Energy in Nashville

The BaltimoreDistrict Steam

System:A Success Story

Renderings of the new facility provided by Gresham, Smith and Partners.

About the Contractor

The Metropolitan Government ofNashville and Davidson County(Metro) awarded ConstellationEnergy Source (CES) of Baltimore,Md., the contract to design, build,operate and maintain its new DES.

The staff of CES responsible for thedesign and operations of the newfacility has been involved in thedevelopment of many other districtenergy plants, including those inChicago, Boston, New Orleans andthe Baltimore District Steam System.

CES provides customized energysolutions nationwide exclusively togovernment and large commercialand industrial customers, offeringclients an extensive array of productsand services designed to increaseenergy efficiency, reliability andcost-effectiveness.

CES is a member of Baltimore-basedConstellation Energy Group. In2001, Constellation Energy Group’senergy-related businesses, includinga North American wholesale powermarketing and merchant generationbusiness, and the Baltimore Gas andElectric Company, helped it generate$3.9 billion in revenues and $14.1 billion in assets.

As a full-service energy consultant,CES has analyzed Nashville’s current energy equipment andexpenses, and has worked withMetro to develop and implement aplan guaranteed to save the cityenergy and money.

Following the development, permitting,and construction of the new energygeneration facility, CES will operateand maintain the Metro NashvilleDistrict Energy System for 15 years,with options for three additional five-year extensions. The DES will remainunder the ownership of Metro.

In 1974, Hume-Fogg High School waslisted on the National Register ofHistoric Places, a fitting tribute to one ofdowntown Nashville’s oldest and mostmajestic stone structures. But in theintervening years, the beautiful façadeof Hume-Fogg has been blemished byair conditioning units jutting out fromevery classroom window.

Not only were the air conditioning unitsan eyesore, they also created noise in theclassrooms, causing major distractionsfor teachers and students.

All that changed, however, late last yearwhen Hume-Fogg became a districtenergy customer. Each room now hasits own thermostat so teachers can regu-late temperatures, and there will be airconditioning in the auditorium for thefirst time ever.

Theresa Rollins, a senior at the school,told Tennessean reporter NataliaMielczarek she has noticed the differenceand is excited about the new system.

“It’s quiet now,” she said. “Before, whenthe teacher was talking and the A/Ccame on, it was really noisy and youcouldn’t hear anything. So you had toturn it off, but then it got hot.” Rollins isalso enthusiastic about the DES’ abilityto distribute heat more evenly than theold system did in winters past.

Students and teachers have welcomedthe upgrade and are enthusiastic aboutthe efficient heat and quiet cooling thatwill enable them to perform throughoutthe day without interruption.

Customer Profile:Hume-Fogg Academic Magnet

Notable News:

Excerpts from The Tennessean editorial, November 18, 2002:

“The recent groundbreaking for the District Energy System,which replaces Thermal, is a reminder of how radically the

area’s appearance is about to change.”

“More than 10 years have passed since the Metro Councilpassed the legislation that merged the old Metro General

Hospital with what was then Meharry’s Hubbard Hospital.Throughout that decade, Nashville has been thinking and

dreaming about what it could do with that stretch of land -- particularly if the Thermal plant was demolished. Ten years is

long enough to dream: Let the planning begin.”

w.nashville.gov/des � www.nashville.gov/des � www.nashville.gov/des � www.nashville.gov/des � www.nashville.gov/des � www.nashville.gov/des � www.nashville