A shared approach to the energy beneath city life. Connecting buildings, recovering useful heat, and developing a pathway toward neighborhood thermal networks.
The neighborhood is the starting point.Urban concept imagery
Location
Washington, DC
Status
Policy & proposed pilot development
Focus
Shared heating & cooling infrastructure
Founded by Adam Francis · A Pelago Power initiative
01The urban opportunity
Think beyond the building line.
Homes, offices, and community buildings have different energy needs. A neighborhood approach looks for the connections between them.
DC TENs explores shared thermal infrastructure, building heat pumps, ground exchange, and available recovered heat. The opportunity is both technical and civic: how to deliver dependable heating and cooling through a system that works for the people it serves.
01 / The buildings
Work with the urban fabric.
Assess existing systems, building needs, and the practical work of connecting occupied properties.
02 / The network
Develop shared infrastructure.
Coordinate the loop, ground exchange, utility access, and long-term operation across a district.
03 / The people
Make the service accountable.
Put affordability, reliable service, workforce participation, and clear responsibilities into the project design.
02How the network works
Above: everyday life. Below: a shared system.
An ambient water loop links buildings to heat sources and sinks. Select an operating example to see how heat can move through the block.
A neighborhood, connected
01Homes02Office03Community04Ground exchange
Conceptual block section. Building heat pumps connect to a shared water loop; the layout and active paths are illustrative.
The operating principle
Different needs can work together.
When one building needs cooling and another needs heating, heat can move through a shared loop. Electric heat pumps connect each building to the network.
Office releases heatHomes use heat
Complementary loads can reduce the amount of heat that must be exchanged with the ground or another source. Timing, temperatures, and controls determine the opportunity.
The engineering question
How do building loads, loop temperatures, ground conditions, electrical demand, and operating controls fit together across the year? A viable network needs an integrated answer.
For building owners and communities, the value of a thermal network depends on the complete service: installation, cost, comfort, maintenance, and performance over time.
Connecting to a shared loop requires assessment of the building's heat pumps, distribution system, controls, and electrical capacity. Existing equipment, tenant needs, access, and the timing of replacement shape the retrofit plan.
04The development pathway
From policy work to neighborhood pilots.
In development
DC TENs is an initiative in policy development, stakeholder engagement, and proposed pilot planning. The concepts below describe a path to evaluate, authorize, and deliver projects.
01
Define the service
Develop a proposed regulated thermal-utility pathway with clear ownership, operating responsibilities, and oversight.
02
Set the protections
Address cost recovery, customer safeguards, cost controls, labor and safety, and public-interest review.
03
Evaluate pilots
Use engineering, affordability, and delivery criteria to evaluate candidate building clusters and proposed scopes.
04
Measure & learn
Define performance reporting and decision gates so a pilot can inform the next development step.
Two complementary pilot concepts.
Proposed contexts for evaluation. Site selection and authorization remain part of the development process.
Pilot concept / 01Retrofit
Affordable multifamily housing.
Evaluate the transition within occupied buildings, with resident experience and the total cost of service at the center of the case.
Questions to resolve
Equipment replacement, customer costs, construction phasing, tenant protections, and operating responsibilities.
Pilot concept / 02New construction
A mixed-use building cluster.
Evaluate shared infrastructure alongside new buildings, coordinating the network with development schedules and complementary loads.
Questions to resolve
Load diversity, connection timing, common infrastructure, utility coordination, and long-term service obligations.
Our role
Initiative development, policy advocacy, and early screening. Under the proposed utility-led model, financing, engineering, and operating responsibilities would sit with utilities through an approved framework.
05Build the next step together
A neighborhood effort. A shared opportunity.
Progress depends on building owners, residents, utilities, public agencies, engineers, workforce partners, and development capital working around a defined project.
Buildings & communities
Define the need.
Bring building information, heating and cooling challenges, equipment-replacement plans, and resident priorities.
Technical & utility partners
Test the project case.
Contribute engineering, subsurface knowledge, utility coordination, service design, and operating experience.
Development & capital partners
Advance defined work.
Explore support for screening, feasibility, customer engagement, and accountable pilot-development milestones.
