District Energy St. Paul

Legal name: District Energy St Paul Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
411358662
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2024
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Saint Paul, MN, US
Phone
651-297-8955
Rating
76
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Public Utilities

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$58,242,371
Expenses
$55,716,948
Assets
$185,308,442
Liabilities
$174,780,636

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

21 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • LUKE GAALSWYL (PRESIDENT & CEO)
  • KENNETH SMITH (PRESIDENT & CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • KENNETH SMITH (PRESIDENT & CEO): $1,023,619 total reported compensation
  • ANDREW KASID (EVP & CFO): $674,076 total reported compensation
  • MICHAEL AHERN (SVP, CHIEF DEVELOPMENT OFFICER): $632,133 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

District Energy was founded on a commitment to providing reliability, efficiency, rate-stability, and exceptional customer service.

What it reported doing in 2024

District energy services: district energy st. Paul is a non-profit utility providing energy services to downtown saint paul, mn for over 40 years. The core heating network serves over 200 buildings in the central business district and across the river to a secondary area of commercial, light industrial, and residential development. The cooling network serves more than 120 buildings in the central business district. The customer base includes the state of Minnesota capitol complex, city and county owned buildings, higher education, hospitals, fortune 500 companies, residential apartments, condos, and townhomes, as well as hotels, entertainment, and sports venues. District energy st. Paul is the largest hot water district energy system in the united states and is recognized globally as a leader in integrated and dynamic energy services. To increase efficiency, reliability, and improve the environmental profile of the system, the utility has incorporated thermal storage, solar thermal, and biomass-fired combined heat and power. The work on the system this year included several distribution projects that supported growth of the heating and cooling systems, capital maintenance projects to maintain high reliably of services and construction of a new thermal plant to incorporated additional thermal storage. As the broader transformation of the energy system continues, district energy remains committed to adapting and devising creative solutions that effectively serve customers, partnerships, and the saint paul community. District energy maintains the value of in-person customer engagement and this year the company hosted engagement opportunities, seminars, and trainings to encourage customers to play an active role in their use of district energy. In addition, district energy continued to help customers with their energy monitoring via the customer portal. Training opportunities were offered to existing customers with the goal of getting them directly involved with their energy usage and opportunities for improved efficiencies. As the company continues to grow, it remains dedicated to prioritizing the customers' needs for reliability, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 92% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 75
  • Transparency & Controls: 71
  • Accountability: 84
  • Sustainability: 51
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 82.2%; rating input score 82
  • Program expense ratio: 87.3%; rating input score 87
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Missing
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Scored; rating input score 0

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 87.5%; rating input score 88; 34th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 78
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 4.3%; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.33; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.94; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 5.4%; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 8.1% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 8.7% per year; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 8.7% per year; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 2 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 2 operating locations identified
  • Where the money goes: 82.2% of revenue deployed · 87.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 8 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $48.6M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $1M · 21 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $6M reported
  • Consistency: 35 of 35 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 9 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, executive pay, and related organizations
  • Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 13 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 7 filed related-organization links
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 9 not reported.
  • High — Transparency & Controls: Related-party transparency scored 0/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 54/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 9/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 14/100.