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By Joe Boomgaard | MiEnergy
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Veolia Energy Grand Rapids Plant Operator Brent Buller and General Manager Jim Monterusso said the local operations are changing in a number of ways thanks to investments in improving the downtown steam network and to the parent company using Grand Rapids as a hub for other operations. PHOTO: JOE BOOMGAARD

GRAND RAPIDS —When Veolia Energy bought the district energy network under downtown Grand Rapids in 2008, the company saw the move as its way of putting down roots in the Great Lakes region.

Since then, the company has invested in several rounds of improvements to the steam network aimed at increasing the efficiency of the system. The measures have been focused on stopping leaks and replacing old infrastructure as well as upgrading lines from low-pressure to the more efficient high-pressure systems. Work on more improvements was set to start this month.

The local system is certainly a key focus for the company, but Jim Monterusso, general manager of Veolia Energy in Grand Rapids, said the international parent company has much bigger plans for its local operations.

“We want to create a platform for growth in the Great Lakes,” Monterusso told MiEnergy. “For anything in the Great Lakes, we want it bolted onto Grand Rapids.”

The first example in how the company’s Grand Rapids operations will serve as a hub just started last month with the launch of Veolia’s latest landfill-gas-to-energy plant in Hilbert, Wis., about 30 miles inland from Manitowoc. The project is managed and remotely operated via the Internet from Veolia’s control room in Grand Rapids. The system gives the local controllers an in-depth view of every part of the mechanicals of the Wisconsin plant, including partial control over the machinery.

Another West Michigan company, Intagio LLC, developed a video system that lets the control room in Grand Rapids monitor activity at the plant.

Veolia has invested heavily in upgrades and efficiencies to the old power plant on Fulton Ave. in downtown Grand Rapids, including a heat recovery system. PHOTO: JOE BOOMGAARD

“Strategically, our top two goals are to benefit from the improvements we’ve made to the grid in Grand Rapids — we’ve poured a lot into upgrading the system since we acquired it — and get more off-pipe customers,” Monterusso said.

The company is actively pursuing opportunities for new and existing cogeneration facilities in West Michigan and elsewhere in the upper Great Lakes. When power plants burn gas or coal, they produce thermal energy as a byproduct, which can be used for heat or hot water, in some cases.

“Whether at an existing industrial campus or a new one, we can look at the footprint and the energy profile and put together a solution to distribute that energy,” he said. “Anytime you can say cogen makes sense, you almost always have greener, lower cost total energy management than if you buy off the grid. … What we do is particularly effective in known areas — concentrated industrial areas and industrial parks where two or three companies are using energy differently. It’s the same concept as the downtown steam. (All the companies) benefit by sharing the loads. We seek all those situations out.”

Many relics from the past still line the plant, but don’t let them fool you, says Jim Monterusso. The plant is growing its technical capabilities and remote operation expertise. Operators in Grand Rapids, for example, manage one of the company’s new power plants in Wisconsin via web-based technology. The Grand Rapids facility has a modest control room now, but Monterusso envisions the day when the basement of the plant – now used for storage – could be converted into a larger, more robust control center for regional applications. PHOTOS: JOE BOOMGAARD

Energy-intensive healthcare campuses are prime candidates because they use large amounts of electricity and steam. College campuses — with a range of mixed-use buildings — can also benefit from cogeneration systems.

“In Grand Rapids, 125 buildings leverage the central thermal energy utility. That has much better efficiency than if each do their own thing. That’s the fundamental principle of district energy,” he said.

The company has the capacity to run 450,000 pounds of steam per hour and manages about 7 miles of pipe — both high-pressure and low-pressure — to a diverse range of customers throughout the city. Veolia employs 10 people in Grand Rapids, all of them skilled tradesmen.

Over time, he’d like to see the local operations grow density along the existing line — the more people that use the system, the cheaper it is for everyone — as well as add to the existing length of the system.

“A lot of capacity is available for growth. We can serve a lot more customers than we do,” Monterusso said. “The most sexy for us is the off-pipe projects on industrial or other properties in Grand Rapids and other nearby places, like Holland and Muskegon.”

Other divisions of Veolia have stakes in water services, waste management, transportation. Internationally, Veolia also has a presence in alternative energy, something Monterusso believes could come in handy as more wind and solar energy develops in the state and nearby.

“One of the opportunities in West Michigan is as an energy consulting business as wind becomes a bigger and bigger component in the Great Lakes,” he said. “There’s no reason we can’t get involved in an operations and maintenance standpoint. We have expertise that we can tap, and we already have a control room. There’s no reason we can’t watch a wind farm (from Grand Rapids).

“We’re technology neutral — not just wind or solar or biomass. We do it all, and that’s very liberating. We can go to any situation in the Great Lakes and unload all the bullets we have. There’s something we can offer.”

He acknowledges many hurdles stand in the way of alternative energy becoming a significant part of the local business, but he envisions a day not too far off when a number of collaborators come together in West Michigan to get a project off the ground.

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• grand rapids
• intagio
• jim monterusso
• veolia energy