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Essentia Health and City of Duluth to Advance Vision Northland with Long Term Energy Plan

[Duluth, MN] - The City of Duluth, its utility provider - Duluth Energy Systems (DES), and Essentia Health have reached an agreement that creates mutual benefits and exciting prospects for the community energy infrastructure over the next 20 years. The terms of the agreement were finalized by the parties last week and ensures that Essentia’s Vision Northland project has the reliable infrastructure it needs to provide the highest quality patient care.

By partnering with Essentia, the City and DES can meet the critical needs of Essentia’s exciting Vision Northland project while bolstering further advancement of the DES system and expanding the benefits of the system to more customers in the community. Benefits to the city and its utility customers include higher efficiency energy production and delivery, renewable fuel integration, and a solid redundancy plan with shared production infrastructure capacity.

The new energy infrastructure that will be installed as part of Essentia’s Vision Northland will further diversify the Duluth Energy System’s production using clean fuels as it transitions to a new hot water closed loop heating system and renewable fuels.  

“Providing a reliable utility while supporting the largest healthcare development in Duluth’s history will create a sustainable energy source and ensure the City of Duluth meets our goals of reducing greenhouse gases,” says Duluth Mayor Emily Larson. “Duluth’s healthcare industry is critically important to the city but also the region by leading with excellent care, innovative technology and patient-oriented top-rated facilities. This agreement between the City of Duluth-DES and Essentia Health further advances Vision Northland for the long-term benefit of Duluth’s future.”

“We are pleased to partner with the City of Duluth and Duluth Energy Systems.  This agreement will benefit not only our patients, but all who live and thrive in downtown Duluth,” Essentia CEO Dr. David Herman says.  “In the interest of the patients we are privileged to serve, we employ every opportunity to reduce the cost of care we deliver.  In this instance, reasonable financing and long-term thermal energy costs make health care more affordable.”

The Duluth City Council will confirm the agreement at their upcoming meeting on Monday, October 8.

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