History of District Heating in the United States

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District Heating in Milwaukee, Wisconsin


1915 System Map	1951 System Map	Map of 2023 Steam System

Milwaukee has had two separate district heating systems. The first was the Milwaukee Steam Supply Company that operated from 1879 to 1881 and the second began in 1906 and is still operating.

The Milwaukee Steam Supply Company was organized in April 1879 and began supplying steam in October. They had over 100 customers by the following May. Unfortunately for them, the winter of 1880-81 was one of coldest on record as was told by Laura Ingalls Wilder in The Long Winter. [Many thanks to my daughter Sara for making that connection.] Snow blocked most railroad traffic and prevented fuel deliveries, forcing the company to suspend operations on March 5, 1881, although a group of customers tried to keep it operating but had no money to fuel, etc.. This was the first of the Holly steam companies to fail, but would not be the last.

Beer baron Frederick Pabst secured an ordinance in 1891 to install steam pipes in downtown Milwaukee. He built the Pabst Power Building at 451-453 Broadway to supply steam and electricity to his properties including the Pabst Building at 407 E. Water and perhaps others.

We Energies' steam system dates to 1897 when a precursor company, The Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Co., bought several properties from beer baron Frederick Pabst, as part of its acquisition of a rail line connecting Wauwatosa to Milwaukee. The purchase included an electric plant on Broadway that was already providing steam to the Pabst Theater and other nearby properties, according to Milwaukee historian John Gurda's book, Path of a pioneer: A centennial history of the Wisconsin Electric Power Company.

References
1879 "Articles of Association," Wisconsin State Journal, April 15, 1879, Page 5.
Robert Eliot, John Black, Winfield Smith, H.H. Button, Alex. Mitchell, and Wm. P. McLaren, as "The Milwaukee Steam Supply Company"; object: producing, furnishing and selling within the county of Milwaukee steam to be used for heating, furnishing power for other purposes; capital stock $150,000; location of offices, city of Milwaukee.

1879 "An Ordinance to authorize the Milwaukee Steam Supply Company to use Certain Streets of the City of Milwaukee," May 5, 1879

1879 "Steam on Tap," The Pantagraph, November 6, 1879, Page 4.
The Holly Heating Systems -- Some account of the Milwaukee Steam Supply Company.

1880 "Steam Heating," The Buffalo Commercial, May 19, 1880, Page 4 | Part 2 |
Letter from L. A. Wheeler, Secretary of the Milwaukee Steam Supply Company.
8-inch pipe, 2,540 feet
10-inch pipe, 545 feet
6-inch pipe, 5,156 feet
4-inch pipe, 5,195 feet
3-inch pipe, 1,300 feet
5-inch pipe, 875 feet
Total 15,561 feet
Also have put in over 6,900 feet of service pipe. We now have over one hundred customers. Are heating about 5,000,000 cubic feet of space in buildings and dwellings. Are furnishing power to about ten engines, about sixty horse-power (20 down to 2 each)

1881 The Fall River Daily Herald, February 3, 1881, Page 4.
The Milwaukee Steam Supply Company has had a hard road to travel With experiments in smoke consumption cheap fuel and aa exceedingly cold winter it has been forced to levy an assesuient of 50 per cent on the stockholders- Some of the patrons think it would serve the stockholders just right if the assessment was 1000 per cent.

1881 "Notice," The Daily Republican and News, March 5, 1881, Page 2.
Milwaukee, March 4, 1881 - The directors of the Milwaukee Steam Supply Company have turned over the steam works to the undersigned committee of the consumers of steam. Said committee have parped an agreement to be signed by parties desiring to be furnished with steam the remainder of the season, which agreement is open for signature at the company's office, No. 496 Market street. Steam will be shut off from all parties not signing the same prior to Saturday evening, March 5.

1881 "At Milwaukee," Wisconsin State Journal, March 5, 1881, Page 1.
In Milwaukee, the Steam Supply Company, which furnishes heat to hundreds of residences and ateam to factories, could get no fuel on credit, and suspended, and put the management into the hands of a committee of stockholders. Coal is $12 a ton and wood $9 a cord; both are almost impossible to get; dealers are selling coal at $1 for two bushels.

1881 "In Trouble Again," Chicago Tribune, March 15, 1881, Page 8.
Special dispatch to the Chicago Tribune.
Milwaukee Wis.. March 14. The patrons of the bankrupt Steam-Supply Company held an excited meeting' this evening.. The Company turned the buildings and boilers over to the consumers a fortnight ago, and assessments and pledges were then made which have not been honored. The concern therefore, finds itself in a second decline, there not being any money with which to buy coal or pay other expenses. It will be determined to-morrow whether it will be kept running or not..

1891 The General Ordinances of the City of Milwaukee to January 1, 1896
Pages 1122-1127: An ordinance to authorize Frederick Pabst and others to use certain streets and alleys in the city of Milwaukee for supplying steam and electric lights, July 13, 1891, and 1894 amendment expanding territory.

1893 Western Electrician 13(3):36 (July 15, 1893)
An ordinance is pending in the Milwaukee city council which has caused considerable discussion in the Cream City. It provides for an extension of privileges granted Capt. Frederick Pabst in an ordinance passed July 20, 1891. The first ordinance grants the right to lay pipes, mains, conductors, service pipe, electric wires and cables, for the purpose of conducting steam and water for heating purposes and electricity for lighting and furnishing power on East Water street, from Wisconsin street north of Mason, and thence across city hall square and Oneida street to a point between Oneida and Biddle streets, and connection with a power house for the purpose of furnishing heat, light and power to the buildings on the line of the streets named. The impression, when the original ordinance was passed, was that Capt. Pabst wished to supply his properties, the Pabst building, the Kirby house, the St. Charles hotel and the Stadt theater with heat, light and power. The amended ordinance extends the franchise to cover the very business center of the city, on the East and West Sides. On the former it includes East Water street and Broadway, from Oneida south to Erie and Wisconsin streets, from the lake to the river, and all the cross streets along the right of way. The West Side franchise includes a selection of the best business streets south to Bridge street, west to Ninth street, and north to State street. There is no provision made for crossing the river, it is suggested that the plan includes a power house at the Pabst brewing plant. It is given out that in case the ordinance is adopted, a stock company is to be organized with Capt. Pabst at its head, to build and equip the plant, to furnish electricity for lighting purposes and for power to private residences and business houses.

1894 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Volume 1, 1894
Plate 13: Pabst Power Building, 451-453 Broadway; and Pabst Building at 407 E. Water at Wisconsin.

1906 History of Dane County: Biographical and Genealogical
Page 311: Peter Gauer received his education and learned the machinests' trade in his native country. In 1873 he came to this country with his parents and entered the employ of a furniture firm in Milwaukee as fireman. He remained with this concern some three years, becoming engineer after the first six months' service. He then became foreman of a pipe-laying gang for the Milwaukee steam supply company, a company which supplied steam for heating and power to residences and business houses. The company had thirty-three boilers in operation, each supplying over one hundred horse-power. When the pipe-laying was done he entered the works as foreman of the firemen and six months later was promoted to the position of engineer.

1915 District Heating: A Brief Exposition of the Development of District Heating and Its Position Among Public Utilities, by S. Morgan Bushnell and Frederick Burton Orr
Page 12: The accompanying map of the heating systems in Milwaukee shows a system of mains having a total length of about 60,000 ft., to which is already connected a half-million square feet of radiation.
Page 61: For example, the Central Heating Company of Milwaukee, with very large and extensive systems of underground mains has thus far connected only 500,000 sq.ft. of radiation or only a fraction of the future load on the system. If we examine the rate of the Milwaukee Company, we find that the average rate for the 50,000 lb. customer would be about 71¼¢ per thousand pounds. The fact that this company has already built up a large business on this rate shows that it is not too high a rate to secure business and at the same time, there is a reasonable surplus between their rate and the theoretical cost of steam production to allow for losses during the building up of the business.

1955 "The Granddaddy of Central Station Heating," District Heating 41(1):24-26 (July 1955)
Uncovering of old valve recalls pioneer steam distribution system.
But many years later, in 1939, Mrs. J. M. Percies, then a customer of our present heating system, told Henry Warhanek, superintendent, that the Milwaukee Steam Supply Company abruptly stopped operations on one of the coldest days in February, probably in 1881 or 1882, making it necessary for the customers to vacate their homes until new boiler plants could be installed. What happened in the hotels, stores and offices on the system was not reported.

1956 "Museum Piece is Unearthed," District Heating 41(4):129-130 (April 1956)
76 year old unusual heating system junction box discovered.

1996 Path of a pioneer : a centennial history of the Wisconsin Electric Power Company, by John Gurda
Page 46: Both lines were owned by brewer Frederick Pabst, whose summer farm (now the elegant Washington Highlands subdivision) happened to lie in Wauwatosa.
The $770,000 purchase also brought a pair of powerhouses into the TM system: a railway plant in Wauwatosa and a lighting plant on Broadway in downtown Milwaukee. Waste steam from the Broadway plant's boilers was piped underground to provide heat as well as light to the Pabst Theater, the Pabst-owned St. Charles Hotel, and other buildings on the east side of the river. (It was thus the earliest instance of cogeneration — simultaneous production of thermal and electrical energy — in what became the Wisconsin Electric system.)
Page 56: The basement housed a cogeneration plant that provided electricity and steam heat for TM's headquarters and other downtown buildings. (The East Wells plant shared the steam load.)
Page 108: By 1925 the plant generated 86 percent of the TM system's electricity, leaving the Commerce and East Wells facilities to produce steam heat and standby power.
Page 166: The East Wells "boiler house" was completed in early 1939, and Commerce Street’s followed in late 1941. Although the new units were designed to serve the steam heating system in downtown Milwaukee, they added nearly 50,000 kilowatts (roughly 10 percent) to WEPCO's capacity.
Page 200: In February, 1966, while work on the eighth and final unit at Oak Creek was still under way, Wisconsin Electric unveiled plans for two new power plants. The first was a 140-megawatt cogeneration plant designed to share, and eventually take over, the steam-heating load handled by the aging Commerce and East Wells powerhouses.
Page 201: The Valley plant's first unit was dedicated in July, 1968, with Gov. Warren Knowles in attendance, and the second was finished in March, 1969, just in time to serve the steam system's newest and largest customer: Marquette University.

2015 SEC form 10-K WE Energies
2015 2014 2013
Pounds of steam sales (in millions) 2,515 2,865 2,750

2023 "Steam has provided heat and power for downtown Milwaukee for 125 years. Why? And what's its outlook in a green-energy future?" Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, July 5, 2023
The 400-plus customers connected to the steam system are a small, but important, part of We Energies' business.