Building wide generating and averaging absolutely makes sense.

It needs tighter regulation though. As when you have apartments that are effectively tied to a provider, protections need to be in place to stop ridiculous energy price hikes and maintenance charges.

Bankside Yards is using a “fifth-generation” combined heating and cooling network that can balance energy within each building and then between buildings by collecting unwanted heat, say from a refrigerator in a restaurant or a piece of office equipment that needs to be cooled, and carrying that heat to somewhere that needs hot water or domestic heating.

Electric-powered heat pumps on building rooftops and in each apartment or commercial space then adjust the temperature of the water by withdrawing or injecting heat into the pipes to provide the heating, cooling and hot water needed in each place.

Makes sense, especially when you have a mixed use complex - a shop may run a large refrigerator and you could use the extracted heat in homes.

A friend installed air conditioning at an air force base to cool down the supercomputers running the fighter jets and I presume that heat was just vented out, where you could make use of it to heat barracks and offices.