History of District Heating in the United States

| Chronological List of District Heating Systems in the United States |

District Heating in Houston, Texas

Northwind Houston built a district energy plant in downtown Houston that began operating in 1999. Primarily a district cooling facility, the system also provides heating to several customers.

The system was sold to Enwave and then in 2021 to CenTrio.

References
1997 "Utility invests in company selling chilled water for air conditioning," The Houston Chronicle, April 2, 1997, Page 2C
Northwind Houston with Houston Industries (parent company of Houston Lighting and Power Co., later renamed Reliant Energy) providing 75 percent of the upfront funding and 25 percent by Unicom Thermal Technologies

1999 "Northwind Houston District Cooling System Development," Proceedings of the IDEA Annual Cooling Conference 14(7):1-16 (October 1999)

2001 District Energy Trends, Issues, and Opportunities: The Role of the World Bank (2001)
Page 86: Unicom Thermal Technologies UTT is a subsidiary of Unicom Corporation ( and also the parent of Commonwealth Edison , the electric utility serving Northern Illinois including the City of Chicago). Since 1995, UTT has operated the world's largest ice-based thermal storage system.
UTT was also recently awarded a contract to heat and cool the new Midway Airport terminal and concourse in Chicago. For the Midway project, UTP will manufacture approximately 0.7 million kg of ice each night.
In 1996, UTP created a partnership with Boston Edison Company called Northwind Boston to supply DC in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. In 1997, Northwind Boston started construction of an ice-based central cooling plant in Boston's Back Bay. The ice plant will produce 1.4 million kg ofice at night. This plant will cool approximately 0.5 million m2ofcustomer space in 1999. Plans for additional ice plants and expansion ofthe DC system in Boston are under development.
In 1997, Houston Industries Incorporated (parent of Houston Lighting and Power Co.) formed a joint venture with UTT to develop a DC system in downtown Houston, Texas. The new company, Northwind Houston, a non-regulated affiliate of Houston Industries was created to provide customers with DC services. A DC facility located downtown will provide Houston with a strategic infrastructure improvement. Construction began in 1998.

2002 "Engineering, Construction and Operation of a large Thermal Storage System," Integrated Solutions for Energy & Facility Management, 113-120