Integrated Community Feasibility Study · Integrated Community Energy Feasibility Study ‐ 215247...
Transcript of Integrated Community Feasibility Study · Integrated Community Energy Feasibility Study ‐ 215247...
Integrated Community Energy System
Feasibility Study
January 22, 2016
Submitted to:
The Corporation of the City of Burlington
426 Brant Street, City Hall
Burlington, ON, L7R 3Z6
Submitted by:
Information contained herein is confidential and may not be released to any third party.
Disclaimer
This report has been prepared by FVB Energy Inc. The information and data contained herein represent FVB’s best professional
judgment in light of the knowledge and information available at the time of preparation. FVB denies any liability whatsoever to
other parties, who may obtain access to this report for any injury, loss or damage suffered by such parties arising from their use
of, or reliance upon, this report or any of its contents without the express written consent of FVB Energy Inc.
The cost estimates and any estimates of rates of productivity provided as part of the study are subject to change and are
contingent upon factors over which FVB Energy Inc. have no control. FVB Energy Inc. does not guarantee the accuracy of such
estimates and cannot be held liable for any differences between such estimate and ultimate results.
©2016 The Corporation of the City of Burlington. All Rights Reserved.
The preparation of this feasibility study was carried out with assistance from the Green Municipal Fund, a Fund financed by the
Government of Canada and administered by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. Notwithstanding this support, the
views expressed are the personal views of the authors, and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the Government of
Canada accept no responsibility for them.
Table of Contents
Contents1. Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................... 1
2. Report Glossary ..................................................................................................................................... 3
3. Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 4
3.1. District Energy in Ontario .............................................................................................................. 4
3.2. Burlington DES Opportunity .......................................................................................................... 6
3.3. FVB Scope of Work ........................................................................................................................ 8
3.4. City of Burlington Documents ....................................................................................................... 9
4. Business As Usual Case ....................................................................................................................... 11
4.1. Description .................................................................................................................................. 11
5. District Energy Case ............................................................................................................................ 13
5.1. Description .................................................................................................................................. 13
5.2. Benefits of District Energy ........................................................................................................... 13
5.3. Main Components of a DES ........................................................................................................ 14
5.3.1. Energy Transfer Station ....................................................................................................... 14
5.3.2. Distribution Piping System .................................................................................................. 15
5.3.3. Energy Centre ...................................................................................................................... 15
5.4. Technology Enhancements of District Energy ............................................................................ 16
5.4.1. Combined Heat and Power (CHP) ....................................................................................... 17
5.4.2. Chilled Water Thermal Storage ........................................................................................... 18
5.4.3. Hot Water Thermal Storage ................................................................................................ 19
5.4.4. Renewable Energy Inputs ................................................................................................... 19
5.4.5. Geo‐exchange ..................................................................................................................... 20
5.5. Benchmarking Performance ....................................................................................................... 21
5.5.1. Markham District Energy .................................................................................................... 22
5.5.2. Hamilton Community Energy .............................................................................................. 24
6. Characteristics of a District Energy Node............................................................................................ 25
6.1. Screening Matrix Criteria ............................................................................................................ 25
6.1.1. Sizing and Intensity of DES Node ........................................................................................ 25
6.1.2. Available Space for Central Energy Centre ......................................................................... 26
6.1.3. Presence of an Anchor Client .............................................................................................. 27
6.1.4. Forecast Greenfield Development ...................................................................................... 27
6.1.5. Redevelopment within Existing Nodes ............................................................................... 28
6.1.6. Presence of Barriers of Thermal Distribution ..................................................................... 28
6.1.7. Burlington Hydro Grid Interconnection Capacity ............................................................... 29
6.1.8. Timeframe to Implement .................................................................................................... 29
6.1.9. Ability of Burlington to Influence DES Development .......................................................... 29
6.1.10. Ability to Showcase for Burlington ..................................................................................... 30
7. Candidate Nodes in Burlington ........................................................................................................... 31
7.1. Downtown Growth Area ............................................................................................................. 31
7.1.1. Burlington City Hall ............................................................................................................. 32
7.1.2. Private Multi Residential Sites ............................................................................................ 33
7.1.3. Joseph Brant Hospital ......................................................................................................... 33
7.1.4. Skyway WWTP..................................................................................................................... 34
7.1.5. Canada Centre for Inland Water ......................................................................................... 34
7.2. Mobility Hubs .............................................................................................................................. 34
7.2.1. Appleby Mobility Hub ......................................................................................................... 35
7.2.2. Burlington Mobility Hub ...................................................................................................... 36
7.2.3. Aldershot Mobility Hub ....................................................................................................... 36
7.3. Economic Prosperity Corridor ..................................................................................................... 37
7.3.1. McMaster DeGroote School of Business ............................................................................ 37
7.3.2. City Owned Athletic and Recreation Centres ..................................................................... 38
7.4. Other Opportunities .................................................................................................................... 38
7.4.1. Uptown ............................................................................................................................... 38
8. Review of Planning Policies to Encourage District Energy .................................................................. 39
8.1. City of Toronto ............................................................................................................................ 39
8.2. City of Markham ......................................................................................................................... 39
8.3. Lonsdale Energy Corporation ...................................................................................................... 40
8.4. Regent Park Energy ..................................................................................................................... 40
8.5. South East False Creek ................................................................................................................ 40
8.6. City of Victoria ............................................................................................................................. 40
8.7. Other Jurisdictions ...................................................................................................................... 40
9. Recommendations and Next Steps ..................................................................................................... 41
9.1. Recommended Nodes ................................................................................................................. 41
9.2. Next Steps ................................................................................................................................... 42
9.2.1. Appointment of DES Project Champion .............................................................................. 42
9.2.2. Public Information to Attract Potential Customers ............................................................ 42
9.2.3. Proceed to Business Case Studies ....................................................................................... 42
9.3. Review of Ownership Models ..................................................................................................... 44
9.4. Review Funding Sources ............................................................................................................. 44
Appendix A. Map of Downtown Burlington ............................................................................................ 46
Appendix B. Results of Screening Matrix ................................................................................................ 48
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1. Executive Summary District Energy Systems (DES) are a community based approach to interconnect multiple thermal energy
users (buildings) through a piping distribution network to a centralized heating and cooling source. The
majority of city‐centres in Canada have examples of existing district energy systems ‐ with the
overwhelming majority developed and owned by Municipalities who have the ability to support long
term investments and ownership.
DES are an integral foundation to establishing an Integrated Community Energy System (ICES) to “future
proof” Burlington. The aggregated thermal network achieves the necessary economy of scale for
Burlington to implement CHP, thermal storage and renewable energy supply sources in order to achieve
its Community Energy Plan (CEP). DES enables implementation of more robust and efficient equipment
with improved redundancy and maintainability.
The City of Burlington is approaching a mature point in its development as it approaches build out to its
urban boundary within the next 5 years. The CEP is a 20 year plan which promotes and encourages
lower community energy consumption. The CEP identified District Energy and Combined Heat Power in
the Energy Generation and Security section as key tools to enable Burlington to achieve its goals and
targets.
DES is slightly more expensive than conventional Business as Usual design (BAU) from a short term
perspective ‐ but from a long term perspective, the lifecycle cost is greatly reduced. This explains why
developers tend to favour BAU and Municipalities (who own and operate the facilities) are more
frequently implementing DES.
Implementation of DES also enables future energy technology to be implemented at the Energy Centre
(where the economy of scale would exist) rather than retrofitting at each individual facility (as in BAU).
CHP utilizes a single source of fuel for electrical power generation and recovery of waste heat. This
technology is based on embedded electrical generation at the point of concurrent consumption of
electricity and thermal energy. Hence, rather than a plant which is 35 to 40% efficient relative to its
electrical efficiency potential, CHP can achieve combined efficiencies of greater than 80%. While new
electrical transmission and distribution is expensive to develop in urban centers, CHP enables an
opportunity to leverage existing natural gas distribution infrastructure to mitigate electrical grid
challenges. It is well suited to the Ontario market with expensive electricity and cost effective natural
gas pricing.
By incorporating discrete CHP within the community, the resiliency is improved during weather related
and other types of utility power interruptions. Utilizing natural gas for the CHP also hedges the facility
against electrical and natural gas (the recovered heat would have otherwise been produced in the
facility natural gas boiler) price volatility.
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In general, initial investments in DES are in the $15 to $20 million dollar range and are typically equity
invested by the municipality or the local utility. Subsequent expansions to the DES are then debt
financed. Two relevant examples for Burlington follow;
Markham District Energy is an example of a DES which was established in a Greenfield fashion.
This is of interest to Burlington for the development of the Mobility Hubs and efforts to include
consideration of DES in the planning process. Greenfield DES are often use heating and cooling
distribution system and are well suited for Corporate Headquarter Buildings and Data Centres.
Hamilton Community Energy is an example of a DES which was established in a retrofit fashion
with existing buildings in the Downtown. This is of interest to Burlington for the consideration
of DES in nodes such as the Downtown Growth Area. Retrofit DES typically only use heating
distribution systems.
Greenfield DES is dependent on establishing a client base for interconnection and some considerations
are presented to help Burlington influence development. Retrofit DES have the advantage of a client
base which is already in place.
A diverse review of the City of Burlington was performed to establish integrated community energy
resiliency and sustainability for key buildings, regions and neighborhoods. At this point, we suggest that
DES development may be further investigated in the following order.
1. The Downtown Core ‐ the City Hall / Burlington Centre for the Performing Arts node features a
high content of municipal assets, highest density, and no physical barriers to implementation.
With the ability of the City to influence DES, a showcase installation in the core of the City will
be well positioned to readily interconnect to existing facilities as well as forecast infill
development.
2. Existing electric heating multi residential buildings represents an opportunity to utilize existing
electrically heated facilities to establish a CHP with thermal energy to be distributed to nearby
multi residential facilities. This offsets the high cost of electricity to heat and cool these
buildings.
3. It is strongly recommended that the development of the Mobility Hubs be DES ready with CHP
in these medium density sites.
4. The City owned Athletic and Recreation facilities also may be readily able to immediately
establish smaller DES and enable them to be established as Emergency Centres during electrical
outage events and enhance the resiliency of the Community.
5. The McMaster DeGroote node in the Economic Prosperity Corridor may warrant consideration
when the adjacent Greenfield is considering development.
6. Identified sites which have high electrical loads to establish CHP and may be in proximity to one
or more schools. Schools offer an excellent opportunity to showcase the technology to the
students so that the DES concept may be included in the curriculum and become the “default
BAU” for the upcoming generation – and their parents.
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2. Report Glossary
Below are typical district energy acronyms which may be referenced throughout this report.
BAU Business as Usual
CHP Combined Heat & Power is the generation of both electricity and useful heat from a single source. CHP is also known as Cogeneration.
COP Coefficient of performance is the ratio of the rate of heat removal to the rate of energy input, in consistent units, for a complete refrigerating system or some specific portion of that system under designated operating conditions.
DES District Energy System
DPS Distribution Piping System
EC Energy Centre
ETS Energy Transfer Station
FVB FVB Energy Inc.
GJ Gigajoule, is an energy measurement unit.
HEX Heat Exchanger
kWe Kilowatt Electrical, a measure of instantaneous electrical demand.
kWt Kilowatt Thermal, a measure of instantaneous thermal demand.
ICES Integrated Community Energy System
LDC A Load Duration Curve (LDC) is a curve representing thermal load of a system over the number of hours per year.
LHV Lower Heating Value
MWhe Megawatt Hour Electrical, is an energy measurement unit.
MWht Megawatt Hour Thermal, is an energy measurement unit.
MWt Megawatt Thermal, a measure of instantaneous heating demand.
O&M Operation and Maintenance
OAT Outdoor Air Temperature
TM Trench meters; a measure of trench distance (as opposed to pipe distance). For distribution piping, pipe distance is double trench distance.
TR Tonnes of Refrigeration, a measure of instantaneous cooling demand.
ΔT Temperature Differential (delta T)
VFD Variable Frequency Drive
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3. Introduction
3.1. District Energy in Ontario The general concept behind district energy is powerful yet simple. District Energy Systems (DES) are a community based approach to interconnect multiple thermal energy users (buildings) through a piping distribution network to a centralized heating and cooling source.
The concept of district energy is not new; history points to the Romans as the earliest users. These piped heating systems were used to heat dwellings as well as baths.
In Canada, the first district energy system was established in 1880 in London, Ontario, and the second system in 1924 to serve a small section of the City of Winnipeg’s commercial core. Other Canadian cities served today by district heating systems include Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Markham and Vancouver to name a few. Currently, there are over 80 identified DES across Canada of various sizes, configurations and duration of service.
In Canada, the most common application of district energy is in university, military, government and large industrial campuses. There are many such systems, some of which are larger than most of the utility owned systems. Therefore, the technology is mature and well developed.
All of the recently developed district energy systems in Canada started as relatively small hot water based systems, and have grown gradually over the years. Now the majority of city‐centres in Canada have examples of existing district energy systems ‐ with most being owned by Municipalities who have the ability to support long term investments and ownership.
District energy systems are an integral foundation to establishing an Integrated Community Energy System (ICES). They feature three main components which are described below:
1. Energy Transfer Stations (ETS) ‐ include heat exchanger interfaces between the district energy system and customer building’s heating and cooling systems. This eliminates the need for individual boilers and chiller equipment at each building.
2. Distribution Piping System (DPS) ‐ is the insulated piping network that transfers heating and cooling medium from the energy source to the customers.
3. Energy Centre(s) (EC) ‐ is the thermal energy source. They typically include:
a. Baseload capacity (e.g. cogeneration) that offer key advantages and utilize a secure, low(er) cost fuel source.
b. Peaking boilers that typically utilize a more conventional fuel source.
c. Standby boilers are typically identical to the peaking boilers, but are included to provide a level of redundancy and increased thermal energy reliability.
The following figure depicts an ICES inclusive of combined heat and power, district energy, alternative renewable fuel sources (such as biomass) and thermal storage techniques. The aggregated thermal network achieves the necessary economy of scale to “future proof” Burlington to implement technologies and renewable energy supply sources to achieve its Community Energy Plan.
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District Energy is a mature worldwide technology which predated the current provincial “Business as
Usual” approach which is based on;
Utility electrical power distribution (with associated parasitic losses to cool the unused process
heat from the remote setting of nuclear and thermal generation plants and losses through
transmission and distribution), and
Localized thermal equipment (heating and cooling) contained within each building.
In Ontario, there is no policy which governs district energy ‐ unlike natural gas and electrical utilities
which are regulated by the Ontario Energy Board.
Relative to implementation, the following general points are noted relative to DES development in
Ontario;
Thermal energy may be distributed to various facilities provided that land ownership issues are
properly addressed and existing buried utilities and services are avoided.
Electrical energy may be displaced “behind the meter” from the provincial grid but may not be
fed back on to the grid ‐ without a valid contract from the Independent Electricity System
Operator (IESO).
Recent local district energy developments generally evolved slowly in a planned manner with
connection of thermal loads (usually as they are developed), and combined heat and power
(cogeneration or CHP) when appropriate to the size of the development.
Future stages of DES development may incorporate renewable energy.
Figure 1 ‐ Example of an Integrated Community Energy System
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The City of Burlington faces ICES challenges which may be addressed by the implementation of DES and
CHP;
Recognition of increasing extreme weather events in the Province of Ontario which are being
linked to increased fossil fuel pollutants.
Maintaining continuity of electrical power during climatic and grid reliability events such as the
blackout of 2003, rain storm of July 2013 and ice storm of December 2013.
Ontario’s existing fleet of nuclear power plants is approaching 40 years of age. Some will be
undergoing sequential refurbishments over the next decade while others are decommissioned.
Ontario’s fleet of coal fired power plants have been phased out and the commitment to Green
Energy has resulted in numerous solar and wind power installations. However the contribution
of these developments is variable throughout the year and are dependent on siting and specific
weather criteria.
Increasing electrical costs are hedged by the implementation of CHP.
3.2. Burlington DES Opportunity The City of Burlington is approaching a mature point in its development as it approaches build out to its
urban boundary within the next 5 years. Its urban / rural boundary is being maintained to protect the
rural area, including the Niagara Escarpment, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the Greenbelt in
accordance to the Ontario’s Places to Grow and Greenbelt Legislation.
The City of Burlington Community Energy Plan (CEP, dated January, 2014) is a 20 year plan which
promotes and encourages lower community energy consumption. It takes an integrated energy system
approach to address opportunities for innovation in how energy is sourced, generated, consumed,
recaptured, conserved, stored and delivered.
Burlington’s population is expected to increase from 175,000 (2011) to approximately 185,000 (2031).
This growth is at a slower rate than in the past (from 85,000 (1971) to 175,000 (2011)1). On this basis,
Burlington will commence a long term process of urban intensification and infill densification which
enables an opportunity for Burlington to implement ICES.
Burlington’s buildings are aging – approximately 50% are 30 years of age or greater2. This is important
as reinvestments in facility heating and cooling infrastructure will be warranted. Accordingly,
Burlington is experiencing increased development in high density housing – particularly since 19903.
These are triggers for consideration of District Energy to support ICES.
The City of Burlington Community Energy Plan identified District Energy and Combined Heat Power in
the Energy Generation and Security section as key tools to enable Burlington to achieve its goals and
targets as follows;
1 City of Burlington Community Energy Plan page 18 2City of Burlington Community Energy Plan page 21 3 City of Burlington Community Energy Plan page 21
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Goal ‐ Increase sustainable local energy generation in Burlington and enhance supply security, in
ways that support Burlington’s competitiveness4.
Target ‐ Sustainable local generation (including both renewables and district energy): 12.5 MW
by 2031, approximately 3.5% of Burlington’s peak electrical demand5.
Objective A: Increase capacity for integrated community energy utility infrastructure.
o Action 1‐ Improve the reliability of the electrical distribution grid through smart grid
technologies to support community energy projects, allow greater green power
generation interconnections and enhance economic growth through highly reliable
power.
o Action 2 ‐Complete a feasibility study for district energy in the downtown core.
o Action 3 ‐ Complete a long term plan for district energy in other locations, such as the
Aldershot Mobility Hub and the QEW Employment Corridor.
o Action 4 – Consider feasibility of alternative technologies to support integrated
community energy systems such as storage.
Within the Community Energy Plan, the implications of District Energy / CHP were described as;
Energy generation and security avoidances are based on the impact of one 5 MWe plant in the
downtown district (coming online in 2017) and two 2.5 MWe plants located in other locations
(potentially including a Mobility Hub and/ or the QEW Employment Corridor)6.
Currently Burlington Hydro has implemented a smaller micro turbine CHP at its Brant Street office.
http://www.burlingtonhydro.com/your‐bhi/news‐announcements/425‐burlington‐electricity‐services‐
launches‐micro‐turbine‐cogen‐project.html
The balance of this report will focus on ICES using hot water distribution for the following reasons;
With most of the development in place in Burlington, the business case should take advantage
of an in place customer base which already features aging heating infrastructure within
existing facilities which will require replacement or DES connection.
Very few (<10%) District Energy Plants feature district cooling – generally unless the DES
opportunity is a Greenfield development and/ or has very high density (such as Downtown
Toronto) with multiple large facilities to interconnect.
District cooling is difficult to retrofit in an existing development owing to higher cost (larger
piping owing to smaller temperature supply / return differential) and lower performance
benefits relative to BAU.
While heating is used year round by buildings for space heating and domestic hot water,
cooling is utilized for a much shorter period of approximately 4 months.
4 City of Burlington Community Energy Plan page 65 5 City of Burlington Community Energy Plan page 65 6 City of Burlington Community Energy Plan page 11
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District cooling will require a larger energy centre (to house the chillers and pumping
equipment) and corresponding greater difficulties to establish a suitable site owing to limited
remaining infill space for consideration.
In a Canadian setting, cooling is more of a comfort than a necessity (versus heating which is
life and facility critical to the community in winter).
3.3. FVB Scope of Work Task 1 ‐ ICES Feasibility Study
1. Review reports completed for the City of Burlington which relate to developing a community
DES and are available at the time of the study.
2. Select district energy nodes where there appears to be the best chance of developing viable DES
according to “The Three Pillars” – business sense, energy security and environmental benefit.
3. Conduct research and obtain data on studied and implemented integrated community energy
systems (ICES) for up to two (2) municipalities.
4. Work with the project team and key stakeholders to fully understand planning policies relating
to ICES in Burlington.
5. Determine the potential sites for an Energy Centre in the catchment areas identified. Outline
barriers and constraints to any technologies. Choose potential site(s). Through appropriate
contact with the City, research study to understand plans for brown‐field development sites,
applicable zoning, forecasted development density, forecasted upgrades to municipal
infrastructure such as roadways, water, sanitary, sewer upgrades, wastewater treatment,
waste/recycling facilities, existing electrical and natural gas supply/constraints, and City
programs and initiatives with respect to energy efficiency. The City may be able to give useful
input on expected energy intensity of new buildings in brown‐field and in‐fill projects and
planning or economic development staff may be able to provide useful input on development
scenarios in terms of timing, mix of residential, commercial and institutional, Floor Space Index
(FSI), expected coverage ratios and population growth.
6. The following general information will be compiled, to the extent that it is reasonably available,
on the selected potential nodes to develop a screening criteria/decision matrix to aid in the
identification of suitability. The nodes will be reviewed under the following characteristics (in
no particular order):
a. Greenfield versus existing development
b. Age of development – review of existing infrastructure and assessment of remaining
reliable service of life
c. Population and employment projections for node
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d. Reliability of electrical feeder from utility and security of supply assessment relative to
users (e.g. Hospital, Community Crisis Centre, Important Municipal Buildings etc.)
e. Number of buildings proposed for connection, approximate m² (ft²) of building
development area studied and connected diversity of building; commercial, residential,
institutional, industrial, hospital etc.
f. Presence of municipal/public buildings
7. Garner information on the existing building statistics. Vital data will include the proximity of
high energy users, i.e. hospitals, breweries, industry, etc., as well as density, and the location of
public buildings and/or new development areas where connection to the DE can be mandated
by the City. The work will identify areas that would or may present obvious challenges to a new
district energy development, i.e. areas divided by major highways and/or physical constraints
(parkland, water, etc.).
8. Investigate the applicable benefits of an ICES for the community; in terms of energy
consumption, energy efficiency, energy stability/reliability, employment and fuel flexibility
9. Outline next steps to implementation of DES such as funding, DES project champion, connecting
new and existing buildings to DES and DES infrastructure development.
10. Propose a strategy to attract existing and new buildings to connect to the proposed district
energy system(s), through various measures which will depend on:
a. Building owner
b. Building type/size/age/usage
c. Proximity to proposed energy centre(s) location
d. Type/location of heating/cooling system installed in building
11. Outline the process involved to develop a more detailed business case to implement an ICES
option for Burlington based on the findings of the feasibility study.
3.4. City of Burlington Documents The following City of Burlington documents are identified as support documents to the assessment of
Integrated Community Energy Systems.
Community Energy Plan:
http://www.burlington.ca/en/live‐and‐play/community‐energy‐plan.asp
Official Plan Studies: https://www.burlington.ca/en/services‐for‐you/Studies.asp
Mobility Hubs:
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Final staff report and consultant report:
http://burlington.siretechnologies.com/sirepub/agdocs.aspx?doctype=agenda&itemid=7393&utm_sour
ce=EliteEmail&utm_campaign=May%2023%20Update%20Reminder&utm_medium=email
https://www.burlington.ca/en/services‐for‐
you/resources/Initiative%20Projects/Official_Plan_Review/Studies/Mobility_Hubs_Opportunities_and_
Constraints_/Official_Plan_Review_‐_Mobility_Hubs_‐_Hub_Area_Slides.pdf
Opportunity & Constraints:
http://cms.burlington.ca/AssetFactory.aspx?did=28431
Council Briefing Note:
https://www.burlington.ca/en/services‐for‐
you/resources/Initiative%20Projects/Official_Plan_Review/Mobility_Hubs_Briefing.pdf
Commercial Strategy Study:
Briefing note:
https://www.burlington.ca/en/services‐for‐
you/resources/Initiative%20Projects/Official_Plan_Review/Studies/Commercial_Study/Briefing_Note_o
n_Commercial_Strategy_Study_Final_July_7‐revised.pdf
Transportation Master Plan:
https://www.burlington.ca/en/services‐for‐you/transportation‐master‐plan.asp?_mid_=606
Downtown Core Commitment:
http://www.burlington.ca/en/live‐and‐
play/resources/Waterfront_and_Downtown/Core_Commitment/2013_Core_Commitment.pdf
Burlington Innovation District:
http://www.bedc.ca/node/1117
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4. Business As Usual Case
4.1. Description From the Business As Usual (BAU) perspective, commercial, institutional or residential buildings are
designed to be stand‐alone with conventional building services as follows;
Natural gas boilers for space and domestic hot water heating, and
Electricity drawn from the Provincial Distribution Grid for;
o lighting,
o cooling,
o ventilation,
o computer, and
o consumer appliance loads.
There are also older facilities which continue to utilize electric heating.
Conventional infrastructure represents the lowest installed cost for the building owner but it does not
represent the lowest lifetime operating cost. While each type of building has different electrical and
thermal load profiles, the heating and chilling equipment is generally sized to the ASHRAE 99% weather
data (which is only needed for 1% of the year). For the balance of the year, the oversized equipment
operates at a less efficient part load. Hence, for example, boilers with performance datasheets quoting
80+% efficiency (at peak load) are frequently only achieving 60 to 65% seasonal efficiency over the year.
This is termed seasonal efficiency and is reflective of significant diversity of loading through the day and
the seasons.
Continued BAU development will not achieve the goals of the City of Burlington Community Energy
Plan.
Source Community Energy: Planning, Development & Delivery – Strategies for Thermal Networks (International District Energy Association, 2013)
Figure 2: Simplified Sankey Diagram of Business as Usual Case
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With BAU designs, it is clear that environmental and continuity of energy supply concerns will not be
solved with ever increasing population and electrical loads which will continue to strain the incoming
electrical infrastructure within the City of Burlington. Each building in isolation with BAU technology will
not realize the necessary economy of scale to introduce future sustainable technology for smart thermal
and electrical grids.
Maintaining BAU is the natural inclination of most designers and planners – it is safe to continue along
the developed path. However the developed path can create a rut in the process of new thinking. A
holistic, sustainable view is encouraged to be added to the process where the design of the facility and
of the community are developed in tandem. This vision works well with district energy and combined
heat and power which will be introduced in the following section.
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5. District Energy Case
5.1. Description Relative to BAU, the aggregated thermal grid of a DES enables economies of scale for implementation of
more robust and efficient equipment with improved redundancy and maintainability. It also “future
proofs” communities by enabling CHP, thermal storage and alternative fuel source techniques.
Source Community Energy: Planning, Development & Delivery – Strategies for Thermal Networks (International District Energy Association, 2013)
5.2. Benefits of District Energy DES is a very mature ICES concept and is more prevalent in Europe where fossil fuel is scarce and
resultant energy pricing has been significantly higher than North America for a very long time.
DES is slightly more expensive than BAU from a short term perspective ‐ but from a long term
perspective, the lifecycle cost is greatly reduced. This explains why developers tend to favour BAU and
Municipalities (who own and operate the facilities) are more frequently implementing DES.
A DES offers the following benefits;
A suitable thermal load to enable implementation of CHP within the Community.
CHP initiatives for continuity of community energy supply in the event of a blackout. CHP, if
equipped with black start islanding controls, enables the facility to isolate itself from the grid
and restart to gradually power up key electrical loads and provide heat for an extended
duration. Generally this is not sized for full facility operation, but enables the community to
have a designated emergency reception centre. Standby diesel equipment, by comparison, is
only operated during the grid outage, lasts for the duration of the fuel storage and does not
recover heat.
Figure 3: Simplified Sankey Diagram of District Energy Case
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Enhanced operation and maintenance programs by more qualified staff and the ability to
perform energy benchmarking and monitoring and targeting.
The ability to locate in a remote setting from its customers for greater consideration of biomass,
energy from waste or municipal digester gas renewable energy sources.
Larger and more efficient equipment for enhanced combustion technology and reduced
greenhouse gas emissions.
Consideration of thermal storage.
A higher degree of redundancy for equipment back up.
Greater utilization of property development as occupied space rather than mechanical and
electrical rooms in each building;
The central energy centre can be more robust construction for superior noise reduction and
security.
Implementation of DES also enables future energy technology to be implemented at the Energy
Centre (where the economy of scale would exist ‐ as shown in Figure 1) rather than retrofitting at each
individual facility (as in BAU). This includes staged utilization of technology enhancements as
discussed in the following sections.
5.3. Main Components of a DES A District Energy System consists of 3 main sub‐systems.
5.3.1. Energy Transfer Station
The Energy Transfer Station is the customer interconnection point where the heating is metered and its
energy is exchanged to the isolated building heating loops. The metering and central monitoring
enables benchmarking of each buildings performance upon the network.
Each building would contain at least one ETS and it is
generally located in the mechanical room of each
facility and is substantially smaller than the
conventional boilers which it would offset. Each ETS
would be comprised of two isolating heat exchangers
(one for space heating and one for domestic hot
water), CSA C900 grade energy metering, and
controls. The space heating heat exchangers would
be a brazed plate type unit, while the domestic hot
water heat exchangers would be a double walled
gasketed plate & frame unit. The energy meter
would consist of a magnetic or ultrasonic flowmeter,
energy integrator and temperature sensors. A
modulating control valve would manage the amount
of heat delivered to the building based on the
buildings demand for space heating. Similarly another control valve is used to provide heating for
Figure 4: Typical ETS Installation
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domestic hot water. It is currently assumed that the district side hot water supplied to each building
would be 95°C maximum in the winter, with an associated district return temperature of 65°C. The
design of each buildings internal heating system will need to be coordinated in order to achieve the
district side return temperatures envisioned. A district supply temperature reset schedule would also be
employed.
5.3.2. Distribution Piping System
The buried distribution piping system would consist of
factory pre‐insulated all welded steel piping
components manufactured to the European standard
EN‐253 for district heating service. The distribution
system consists of a supply side that delivers the hot
water to each building and a return side that returns the
cooled water from the building to the production plant.
The pre‐insulated buried piping system would also
include a leak detection system. The design pressure of
the piping system is typically 1600 kPag at 100°C.
5.3.3. Energy Centre
The energy centre would consist of natural gas fired hot water boilers and combined heat and power
(CHP) units. The boilers and CHP units would be installed in a phased manner as well, to reflect the
increasing thermal load as the development is built out. The production facility is configured such that
the CHP units provide the pre‐heat of the circulating district water and the boilers provide final
temperature trimming. Distribution pumps deliver the hot water on a variable flow basis from the
production facility to the customer buildings. The CHP units themselves are natural gas fired
reciprocating engine generator sets. In addition to the electric power generated, heat is recovered from
the engine auxiliary systems and exhaust in the form of hot water. Electricity produced by the CHP units
is either displaced (behind the meter) or may exported to the electrical distribution network (if a
contract to export is secured).
Figure 5: Typical Distribution Piping Installation
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Figure 6: District Energy Centre Examples
5.4. Technology Enhancements of District Energy A basic DES will typically utilize conventional infrastructure – high efficiency boilers delivering hot water
through its distribution system. A basic DES does not address energy security concerns (brownouts) into
the City unless it is equipped with standby diesel and / or CHP equipment.
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5.4.1. Combined Heat and Power (CHP)
A feature of DES which supports consideration of CHP is the thermal distribution system to utilize the
recovered heat for space heating, domestic hot water or process uses. CHP utilizes a single source of
fuel for electrical power generation (from coupling the engine to an electric generator), and recovery of
waste heat (captured in a waste heat boiler to recover steam or hot water). This technology is based on
embedded electrical generation at the point of concurrent consumption of electricity and thermal
energy. Hence, rather than a plant which is 35 to 40% efficient relative to its electrical efficiency
potential, CHP can achieve combined efficiencies of greater than 80%. While new electrical transmission
and distribution is expensive to develop in urban centers, CHP enables an opportunity to leverage
existing natural gas distribution infrastructure to mitigate electrical grid challenges.
By incorporating discrete CHP within the community, the resiliency is improved during weather related
and other types of utility power interruptions. Utilizing natural gas for the CHP also hedges the facility
against electrical and natural gas (the recovered heat would have otherwise been produced in the
facility natural gas boiler) price volatility. It is also a dispatchable technology which is supportive of
Smart Grid development.
The Ontario Provincial Government has included behind the meter CHP as an eligible conservation
measure within their 2015‐2020 Conservation First Framework target of 7 TWh through the LDCs with
financial incentives.
From an electrical perspective, to reduce Provincial transmission losses, current accepted estimates
state that 5 to 7 % of energy generated is lost through transmission. For a 26,000 MWe Ontario
provincial peak load, this would represent 1300 to 1950 MWe of line losses. For context, this is the
equivalent to the installed capacity of 2 to 3 nuclear reactors at Pickering. These line losses may be
cumulatively offset with several smaller CHP embedded generation at the point of consumption.
In Ontario, there are numerous examples of CHP.
Smaller plants – in the 250 kWe to 10 MWe range tend to be embedded in industrial plant or
DES – where the electricity generated is used to reduce (displace) electrical purchase from the
utility and the waste heat is recovered to displace boiler thermal loads in heating processes.
Larger plants are often configured as combined cycle (100 to 500 MWe) where gas turbine
exhaust waste heat is recovered as steam for admission to a steam turbine generator and within
a thermal distribution system (e.g. Greater Toronto Airport Authority (Lester B. Pearson
Airport)).
Generally for DES CHP, 600 to 800 kWe is the minimum threshold size for consideration;
To achieve economies of scale in capital cost
To utilize equipment of higher efficiency and reliability
Complies with public acceptance and recognizes resistance to citing larger plants within the city
in terms of potential resistance from residents (i.e. 2013 Provincial Gas Plant Issue),
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Has historically been a sizing threshold upon which the Ontario Power Authority / Independent
Electricity System Operator programs have focussed (CESOP, CHPSOP).
Prime movers for CHP are summarized as follows;
Gas Engine
Mature technology ‐ up to about 5 MWe, with
many benefits compared to gas turbines – higher
efficiencies, better part load efficiency, and ability
to utilize low pressure natural gas (without
parasitic requirement and noise of a dedicated
natural gas compressor);
Manufacturers offer complete skid mounted
cogeneration packages with engine, generator,
controls, heat recovery equipment, acoustic
enclosures, and silencers;
Robust, slow speed design (900 to 1800 rpm)
enables long expected life cycles up to 20 to 25
years with appropriate maintenance.
Guaranteed maintenance contracts are available by
manufacturers or third parties;
Units may be rapidly brought into operation from being offline.
Gas Turbine
Mature technology and generally more compact in sizes above 7 MWe;
Poor part load efficiency if the DES thermal load requires the prime mover to operate at part
load;
Not as flexible as gas engines for frequent start up and shut downs. Start‐up times are much
longer and frequent shut downs are problematic for long service duty.
Owing to their sensitive sizing criteria for optimized payback, CHP may be implemented at a time when
thermal loads are established. Hence the conventional high efficiency boilers are then available as extra
redundancy and back up/ peaking service.
As noted in the previous section, it is imperative that CHP operate in harmony with concurrent, base
electrical and thermal loads. Attempts to oversize CHP equipment results in reduced operation of the
CHP which stretches out the payback period of CHP.
5.4.2. Chilled Water Thermal Storage
Chilled water storage systems are utilized to reduce chiller equipment sizing and to shift electrical load
from peak to off peak intervals. This has the effect of reducing the strain on the incoming lines to the
City during peak loading and purchasing electricity at lower prices.
Figure 7: CHP Engine
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Massive tanks of ice or brine serve to store chilled water produced during the evening or weekends
when electrical cost is reduced and pump it during peak hours. Modest amounts of supplemental
cooling may be required as needed.
There are a few examples of this technology installed, but it is recognized that the initiative uses
approximately 15% more energy to compensate for the additional pumping and heat gain in storage.
Chilled Water Storage is recommended for further consideration on a site specific basis – particularly
where physical space exists for storage.
5.4.3. Hot Water Thermal Storage
Hot water storage systems are utilized to offer an opportunity for CHP plants to maximize their thermal
load following operation into the summer peak load and store thermal load for utilization during non‐
peak hours when residential customers draw hot water for dishwashing, clothes washers, bathing and
showers, swimming pool warming, etc.
Hot Water Storage is recommended for further consideration on a site specific basis – particularly where
physical space exists for storage.
5.4.4. Renewable Energy Inputs
DES mitigates risk in markets with high or increasing electrical costs by leveraging natural gas pricing.
With their associated economies of scale and remote energy centre location, there are further
opportunities to introduce alternative renewable fuels (in addition to natural gas) for community
resiliency.
Biomass
Biomass may be implemented in a DES either as a feedstock for power generation or thermal
generation. Generally owing to the unique technology, feedstock sourcing/ storage / transportation
logistics, permitting and material handling considerations, the economics of biomass power plants
requires careful consideration. This technology is also sensitive to biomass supply and price fluctuation.
At this point, biomass utilization in a DES may be deferred to a future consideration as a renewable
input at a time when the biomass industry is matured.
Digester Gas
Digester Gas from municipal water treatment is a proven source of renewable energy and currently
there are utilization initiatives at City of Toronto’s Humber and Ashbridges Bay Water Treatment Plants.
During discussions with Burlington Hydro, we have been advised that Skyway Wastewater Treatment
Plant (just beyond the south west portion of Downtown Growth Area Node) is no longer pursuing
cogeneration owing to gas quality and quantity variations and is currently utilizing this gas in its boilers
to displace natural gas.
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5.4.5. Geo‐exchange
This technology may be implemented into the DES but it is not a renewable energy technology. Geo‐
exchange uses electrical energy to yield thermal energy by incorporating Ground Source Heat Pump
technology (reverse vapor compression refrigeration).
This is prevalent in markets with lower cost electricity and higher cost natural gas but this is not
representative of the short or long term forecast for Ontario.
For the screening objectives of this report, geo‐exchange technology is generally not unique to any
contemplated DES and hence it will not influence the screening.
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5.5. Benchmarking Performance Almost all recent DES in Ontario are hot water thermal systems which ultimately seek to interconnect
enough thermal load to establish appropriate behind the meter CHP. In general, initial investments in
DES are in the $15 to $20 million dollar range and are typically equity invested by the municipality or the
local utility. Subsequent expansions to the DES are then debt financed.
There are many additional sources of financial support for DES including Federation of Canadian
Municipalities, Infrastructure Canada Gas Tax Fund and others (see Section 8.4).
Two relevant examples for Burlington follow;
Markham District Energy is an example of a DES which was established in a Greenfield fashion.
Markham was proactive in ensuring that DES was a key feature of Markham Centre’s
development and achieved a significant interconnection to their developed systems. This is of
interest to Burlington for the development of the Mobility Hubs and efforts to include
consideration of DES in the planning process. Greenfield DES are often use heating and cooling
distribution systems. These also are well suited for Corporate Headquarter Buildings and Data
Centres.
Hamilton Community Energy is an example of a DES which was established in a retrofit fashion
with existing buildings in the Downtown. Hamilton was proactive to establishing a DES system
to address environmental and energy security concerns of their Downtown. This is of interest to
Burlington for the consideration of DES in nodes such as the Downtown Growth Area. Retrofit
DES typically only use heating distribution systems.
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5.5.1. Markham District Energy
In 1999, FVB drafted a development plan for Markham Hydro for a DES in the vicinity of Markham Civic
Centre. One of the initial objectives was to assemble heat load, thereby enabling efficient distributed
generation in the form of CHP, which was desired because of experience encountered during the ice
storm that had wreaked havoc in Eastern Ontario and Quebec. The plan was subsequently expanded to
include new buildings planned for a nearby green‐field development known as Markham Centre. FVB
provided marketing, design and construction support to bring the DES in service by December 2000 in
time to meet the in service date of a major employment facility built by IBM that served as the anchor
customer. The initial investment was $10 million by Markham.
In 2001, FVB drafted a business strategy for district energy, including ownership options and presented
it to the Markham Town Council. This led to the current structure of Markham District Energy (MDE), a
subsidiary of Markham Enterprises Corporation, which is wholly owned by the City of Markham.
FVB has acted as prime district energy consultant for feasibility studies and design for most of the
continuous expansion of MDE up to the present day. FVB is currently the Owner’s Engineer for MDE.
Figure 8: Markham District Energy
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FVB continuously works with MDE, the City of Markham planners, building developers and municipal
consultants to ensure district energy is used on all future projects in the Markham Town Centre area.
In 2005, MDE was awarded a 20 year contract for an additional 5 MWe of CHP by the Ontario Power
Authority. The first plant has been expanded several times to meet growing demand and has currently
15 MWt of heating, 4,600 tons of cooling, 8.5 MWe of CHP and 35 MWht of Thermal Energy Storage
(TES).
In 2008, a second plant began operation with 20 MWt of heating and 6,650 tons of cooling. The third
plant features 20 MWt of heating and 7,000 tons of cooling. In 2009, MDE engaged FVB to design the
thermal energy storage, which was successfully brought into service and has performed effectively,
resulting in complete elimination of boiler operation for approximately 5 months in the summer and fall.
The DES currently serves 27 buildings, representing over 10 million square feet of mixed commercial,
institutional and residential space, connected to the heating and cooling systems through 44 kilometers
of heating and cooling district piping system (DPS) with energy transfer stations (ETS) in each building.
When fully developed, Markham Centre will feature 30 million square feet of development, and be
home for 39,000 employees and 41,000 residents. Markham District Energy is generally regarded as
the most successful District Energy System in Canada.
In 2007, Markham Stouffville Hospital received approval to expand its facility and identified its original
heating, cooling and emergency power assets were near the end of its reliable life. In 2012, Markham
District Energy completed construction of its Bur Oak Energy Centre (featuring 4 MWe of CHP) and
commenced operations to over 1 million square feet of customers with the Markham Stouffville
Hospital (704,000 square feet) as the anchor client. This was recently recognized as the International
District Energy Association System of the Year in 2013.
Current total investment in Markham District Energy (inclusive of piping and plant assets) is greater than
$100 million.
http://www.markhamdistrictenergy.com/
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5.5.2. Hamilton Community Energy
The Hamilton Community Energy System (HCES) serves 2.5 million square feet of commercial,
institutional and residential multi‐family properties in downtown Hamilton. This amounts to 12
buildings including a major sports arena and City Hall. The District Energy Plant is located adjacent to
the Sir John A. MacDonald High School at the northwest corner of Bay Street and York Boulevard. This
unique location at “the entrance to Hamilton” required an attractive plant structure.
The motivation for Hamilton Community Energy pursuing a District Energy System was to launch a
whole new infrastructure in the
downtown core to provide highly
competitive, efficiency and
environmentally responsible
thermal energy to provide a
competitive edge in attracting new
development. At the time,
Hamilton featured many industrial
facilities which resulted in air quality
being an issue for its residents.
With the CHP, HCES was able to
achieve an overall combined
efficiency of greater than 80%. For the
interconnected buildings of HCES, over
28 lower efficiency boilers were removed from service resulting in significant greenhouse gas emission
reductions in the downtown core.
Since 2003, the system has been providing thermal heat, hot water and back up electricity using 10 MWt
hot water boilers and a 3.5 MWe CHP unit. Waste heat from the CHP serves the base heat load of the
district heating system, which can amount to approximately 85% of the total heat energy consumed.
The CHP unit can island itself during any grid interruption and provide electricity to critical buildings in
the downtown core. When not required by its customers the CHP is able to sell power back to the city’s
electrical grid.
The CES was built, financed and currently owned and operated by Hamilton Community Energy (HCE).
HCE is a for‐profit affiliate of Hamilton Utilities Corporation, wholly owned by the City of Hamilton. FVB
was the business advisor and design engineer for HCE. FVB was involved from the initial feasibility
study, through the detail design, construction and commissioning. FVB was responsible for the concept
development, design development and construction management and continues to provide support for
system improvements, expansions and new customer hook ups.
http://www.hamiltonce.com/index.html
Figure 9: Hamilton Community Energy
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6. Characteristics of a District Energy Node As mentioned, the City of Burlington is anticipating modest population growth forecast over the next 15
to 20 years and has nearly built out to its boundaries. In this section, we will offer comments of the
desirable criteria to establish a District Energy Node within the City of Burlington in accordance with
their success criteria and goals of the Community Energy Plan.
6.1. Screening Matrix Criteria A screening process was developed with the City of Burlington to establish the suitability of the
identified DES nodes in accordance with the following main criteria;
Sizing and intensity of DES Node
Availability of space for an energy centre
Presence of an anchor client
Forecast greenfield development
Redevelopment with existing nodes
Presence of barriers of thermal distribution
Burlington Hydro Grid Interconnection Capacity
Timeframe to implement
Ability of Burlington to influence development
Ability to showcase for Burlington
These criteria are discussed in the following sections.
6.1.1. Sizing and Intensity of DES Node
DES is best suited for nodes in the City of Burlington with the highest density of development to
achieve economies of scale by;
Minimizing the length of distribution piping to interconnect the facilities. The following district
energy density will help to benchmark the opportunity;
o Low Density (usually not connected) such as a Townhouse development in Markham
may have a Floor / Area Ratio (FAR) approximately 1,
o Medium Density such as Downtown Burlington may have an FAR of approximately 4
o High Density such as Downtown Toronto may have an FAR of greater than 10.
Reducing the quantity of energy transfer stations (i.e. fewer and larger facilities).
Aggregating load profiles of various facilities for improved steady state operation.
Optimizing aggregate redundancy and operations and maintenance staffing.
Institutional, commercial and multi residential developments have similar thermal loads profiles
with slight variations when the domestic hot water is utilized;
o Significant thermal peaks in the winter months relative to the space heating
requirements;
o Shoulder seasons in the spring and fall when heating requirements fluctuate
significantly on a daily and weekly basis;
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o Significant low points in summer when space heating loads are removed and only
domestic hot water loads remain.
Process loads tend to be more stable for 16 to 24 hours per day and 5 to 7 days per week.
The following represents some criteria to consider embedded generation to enable energy resiliency
and environmental performance in accordance with the Community Energy Plan.
The CHP in a behind the meter setting is sized to not export electrical power to the grid.
Further, it is sized to be closer to the base thermal load to avoid part load operation or dumping
recovered heat.
While many conditions are variable (insulation, infiltration, internal heat gains, etc.) an average
facility has a peak thermal load of 60 watts / m2 at a design minimum temperature of ‐22C for
Burlington.
Peak space heating thermal loads of a facility are often 3‐4 times greater than the base loads
(generally domestic hot water and any process load).
FVB suggests that the smallest CHP for consideration may be as low as 600 to 800 kWe. In
certain instances, sizes as low as 200 kWe may warrant consideration. We agree with the
recommendations of the Community Energy Plan that 2.5 MWe (approximately 2.5 MWth) to 5
MWe (approximately 5 MWth) would represent optimum sizes.
o For a 5 MWe CHP, a DES should have between 200,000 to 240,000 m2 of connected
facilities for recovered heat utilization.
o This may be pro‐rated for smaller CHP opportunities.
6.1.2. Available Space for Central Energy Centre
Ideally, the energy centre may be contained within an anchor client and use the CHP power behind the
meter. As their thermal and electrical loads are often the dominant load, then the additional thermal
capacity for the balance of the node is often able to be integrated with a nominal increase in space
requirements.
If the anchor tenant is unable to accommodate the DES plant, an appropriate site must be established.
Certain criteria exist for the selection of sites;
An appropriate Greenfield or brownfield site must be available – preferably near the center of
the node to optimize the piping and proximity for future interconnections. The central plant
building may be approximately 50m x 20m to accommodate CHP equipment, back‐up / peaking
boilers, pumping, electrical room, and worker amenities.
The site and its surroundings will need to be appropriate for environmental compliance for air
and noise of the DES equipment.
If a site is not available for a central energy centre, an alternative approach would be to
establish a network of satellite CHP plants within appropriate electrical load host buildings and
aggregate them thermally.
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6.1.3. Presence of an Anchor Client
Of primary importance to a successful DES is the inclusion of thermal loads from anchor tenant(s). This
would establish a reliable and stable base load for the operation of the DES equipment.
Examples of appropriate Anchor Clients include;
Hospitals,
Colleges and Universities,
Large Hotels or zones of hotels,
Large multi‐residential housing developments or retirement facilities,
Large Convention Centers
Recreation and Community Centers – with indoor swimming facilities.
These facilities are stable in the community and are generally not be subject to economic volatility
resulting in a relocation or closure – they will remain connected to the DES. They typically have
extended operations schedules and high thermal loads. Often they have particular interest in security of
thermal and electrical energy supply. Most importantly, they have higher and more sustained electrical
loads which are desirable to site CHP equipment within in a “behind the meter” configuration.
Certain sites (such as Community Centers) may have emergency crisis center designations which also
favor CHP implementation for electrical and thermal loads which are necessary during blackouts /
brownout events in Burlington.
6.1.4. Forecast Greenfield Development
Identification of Greenfield development is preferred to enable a Master Plan development with DES to
be established with new interconnections over the development of the Node. Greenfield DES sites are
preferred as they enable;
Appropriate siting for a central energy plant.
Sequencing and coordination to simplify the installation of the distribution piping within the
existing site servicing and road development process.
An opportunity for the City to have an influence on site developments to be district energy
friendly in their building services design and interconnect. This helps the sizing of the central
plant to be better defined for future loads to be added.
Significant reduced capital costs for the developer by avoiding the costs of boiler and chiller
equipment from their budget. This minimizes the size requirement of the mechanical room (to
suit the energy transfer station) and enables the developer to maximize the usable space. It also
results in reduced mechanical noise and emissions of combustion.
Enables the developer to promote the site with District Energy and to potentially gain points
within a sustainable building certification program, like LEED ™.
Greenfield has the risk of being dependent upon the DES concept being endorsed during its
development to achieve maximum client interconnection and resultant energy density.
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We understand that Burlington has reached its build out and has limited remaining Greenfield
Development with only smaller parcels remaining in a few nodes. For others, such as Mobility Hubs,
future redevelopment may warrant further DES consideration.
6.1.5. Redevelopment within Existing Nodes
For an existing developed node which is lacking significant Greenfield development or anchor clients,
DES is reliant on redevelopment of existing brownfield sites, limited infill regions and/or retrofit
interconnection of existing facilities. Existing parking lots in suitable locations may warrant
consideration to establish sites for Energy Centres and enable thermal interconnection.
For brownfield redevelopment or limited infill, some of the Greenfield advantages may be realized but
usually in a smaller scale. However from an Integrated Community Energy perspective, older facilities
have lower efficiency heating systems (highest energy intensity) which offer greater merit for DES
measures. With retrofit DES, the client base is already existing and full measure revenues may be
achieved immediately after the system is operational. Where existing facilities are candidates for
conversion to district energy, particular attention must address the following considerations;
Confirmation of an existing hydronic heating system. Facilities which utilize electric heating
(prevalent in 1970’s vintage designs) or direct gas fired heating equipment such as rooftop air
handling units are not configured for DES interconnection. Rooftop air handling units are
common in light industrial, warehouses, shopping malls, box stores and automobile dealerships.
Facilities which are facing reinvestment of existing boiler and chiller equipment.
Location of the mechanical rooms (grade level vs. roof) and available space to stage the
conversion. In particular for roof level mechanical rooms, assessment of the sizing of riser pipes
which may have reduced sizes near grade level.
Thermal load profile of the facility and any existing thermal storage equipment. Facilities with a
desirable baseload may include swimming pools, processes, etc.
6.1.6. Presence of Barriers of Thermal Distribution
Certain nodes may contain barriers which may either restrict or complicate node development ‐mostly
in terms of buried thermal piping. Examples of barriers include;
Major roads or highways – this is particularly noted within the Economic Prosperity Corridor
where the QEW bisects the node.
Railroads – this is of significance to the Mobility Hubs which will incorporate the GO stations
centrally in their development.
Privately held properties who may resist easements.
Intense utility corridors.
Parks and protected greenspace – generally, the contemplated nodes do not have significant
issues with these barriers, but as mentioned, the City of Burlington is “built out” to its UNESCO
World Heritage and Ontario’s Places to Grow and Greenbelt Acts.
Water bodies and streams.
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6.1.7. Burlington Hydro Grid Interconnection Capacity
Certain regions in Burlington have limited electrical grid interconnection capacity as per Map 2.3 of the
Burlington Community Energy Plan, January 2014). These regions would be difficult to establish CHP
within. Burlington Hydro Inc. is collaborating with Hydro One to install the required technology which
may increase the interconnection capacity in the currently constrained areas.
6.1.8. Timeframe to Implement
Certain DES nodes within Burlington are substantially developed (i.e. Downtown Growth Area and
Economic Prosperity Corridor) are dependent on specific opportunities whereas the Mobility Hubs
development is anticipated to be in a longer term at the latter portion of the CEP. Near term
developments will demonstrate an immediate commitment to the Community Energy Plan and long
term developments will demonstrate a continued commitment.
6.1.9. Ability of Burlington to Influence DES Development
Municipal facilities may be directly influenced by the City of Burlington. Existing third party facilities
may require a prolonged effort.
The following are considerations which have been utilized by other Municipalities in Canada;
Offer accelerated building permit or site plan approval processes for facilities which are DES
ready (Markham).
Consider using Section 37 benefits under the Planning Act to encourage measures that would
ensure buildings are connection ready for DES. For example, if a developer includes constant
riser piping in a high rise building so it can more readily connect to a DES in the future, Section
37 benefits could apply.
Offer development fees reductions for DES ready facilities. This requires a long term vision of
the City with a “no pain – no gain” perspective. It is clear that DES is a valuable tool for the City
to attract premium developers and employers to the City which will enhance its community
sustainability and resiliency (Toronto, Calgary).
Encourage higher performance than the current criteria within National and Provincial Building
Codes. Particularly on City owned properties, the performance targets may be set to suit the
interests of the City.
Ensure hydronic heating systems are utilized with central domestic hot water heating and
storage (vs. point of use systems). This should be a logical choice for a sustainable building
project, particularly if obtaining points under a green building certification program. (Lonsdale
Energy Corporation in North Vancouver).
For developments of a minimum size, perhaps more than 1000 m2, (Vancouver, bylaw 8086)
and within the target DES implementation node(s), establish a requirement in the Site Plan
Approval process for the developer to undertake a district energy interconnection feasibility
study or consultation with the City. Offer meetings for developers to discuss DES with City of
Burlington Community Energy Stakeholders.
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For facilities which are owned by the municipality, investigate Federation of Canadian
Municipalities (FCM) financial contributions and incentives. (See Section 9.4 for further details).
Promote that behind the meter CHP enables significant financial contributions for the DES study
(vs. BAU) and contributions for the implementation of this equipment (See Section 9.4 of
Report for further details). This program is part of the Ontario Government’s Plan to achieve
energy savings.
CHP enables resilient operation during Grid Outages for supported facilities (Toronto –
Agincourt Recreation Centre and Etobicoke Olympium).
6.1.10. Ability to Showcase for Burlington The implementation of a DES within the City of Burlington would be most easily communicated to
residents in a municipally owned facility which could showcase the measure and its performance versus
BAU. It would also be visible to the facility users to enable its performance and its installation impact to
be verified.
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7. Candidate Nodes in Burlington
Refer to Appendix A for a map of the Downtown Burlington node and Appendix B for a summary of the
screening matrix considerations.
The following regions represent a high level, review of the City of Burlington to establish integrated
community energy resiliency and sustainability for key buildings, regions and neighborhoods. This
would be re‐evaluated at the next stage of the analysis ‐ when a Business Case Study would be
performed for the short listed candidates.
Where available, electrical consumption of identified facilities is included to identify appropriate DES to
be assessed with CHP technology for integrated community resiliency during electrical power events. In
general, at the screening stage, the associated thermal load may be generally estimated using a 60 w/m2
peak thermal load (at ‐22C, representative of minimum design temperature for Burlington).
7.1. Downtown Growth Area The Downtown Growth Area is currently mature in its development. By review of the “Places to Grow”
document, it is also a designated growth area and contains a mobility hub. Based on City of Burlington
data, it currently features about 1.1 million m2 of development with a potential to increase to 1.36
million m2 by infill development (mostly related to high density residential) based on current Policy FAR.
Boiler infrastructure replacement costs associated with older buildings are particularly well suited for
DES interconnections. Older facilities also tend to have higher energy consumption and therefore offer
higher environmental benefits to the Community with this initiative.
Some existing City owned surface lots remain which may be candidate locations for establishing an
energy centre.
At this stage, lacking a significant region for concentrated development, the Downtown Growth Area
should commence DES development with multiple, smaller behind the meter CHP retrofits within
appropriate existing facilities with thermal interconnection to 2 to 3 buildings. Over time, this approach
will enable interconnection of these smaller thermal networks to enhance redundancy and increase
aggregate loads. While this approach may take longer to develop, and may require periodic Master Plan
updates, it will enable a resilient DES to be established in Downtown Burlington. This is how the
Lonsdale Energy System started.
In this manner, Burlington may consider the following candidate DES developments.
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7.1.1. Burlington City Hall
In the south, the Burlington City Hall (92,000 sf) has an annual electrical consumption of 1.31 million
kWhr/year and natural gas consumption of
95,500 m3/year. The City Hall may be
suitable for a behind the meter CHP (if space
permits) to augment its aging boilers. This
would enable Burlington to lead by example
with a CHP installation to enable local
developers to have a point of reference to
visit. If adequate space does not exist at the
City Hall, perhaps the City owned Brant
Street Lot or the Elizabeth Street Lot may be
appropriate to establish an Energy Centre.
The City Hall is in close proximity to the
Burlington Performing Arts Centre (a LEEDs
building with an annual electrical
consumption of 870,000 kWhr/year and
natural gas consumption of 49,000 m3/year).
The Performing Arts Centre could thermally
interconnect to the DES ‐ and during its
limited usage may also warrant consideration of establishing a behind the meter CHP.
Near these 2 City Owned facilities, are several existing mid height buildings, and the Joseph Brant
Hospital which could also benefit by interconnection to this DES.
In the Downtown Core near this location, there has been discussion of;
Redevelopment potential on John Street from Caroline to Lakeshore,
Hotel development at Brant and Lakeshore – this would be a key connection particularly if it
were to include a swimming pool or athletic facility,
John Street reconstruction in the near future ‐ this would enable DES piping to placed at this
time.
This node would benefit existing larger buildings and future infill commercial or multi residential
developments in the central core and to the East of City Hall. About 1.3 km away from City Hall via
James Street (which is understood to be undergoing near term road development – potential for
concurrent buried piping placement) and New Street is the Central Park Complex. Owing to the
separation distance and the significant amount of low density residential between, the thermal
interconnection of this complex to Downtown must be carefully assessed for interconnection ‐ versus
establishment of an independent Node;
Burlington Central Library,
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Burlington Senior Citizens Centre,
Ron Edwards Family YMCA,
Central Arena (559,000 kWh/year of electricity and 120,048 m3/year of natural gas),
Theatre Burlington , and
Burlington Curling Club.
7.1.2. Private Multi Residential Sites
There are one or two large residential sites close to the downtown core which could be investigated for
separate CHP installations. For instance, behind the meter CHP with recovered heat could be utilized in
the building’s heating and domestic hot water loads. If the building has electric heating, a behind the
meter CHP could displace a considerable portion of the electrical load, which could generate revenue to
hedge against the soaring price of electricity. There could be potential to recover the thermal energy for
domestic hot water by retrofitting the system. Thermal energy connections could be made to other
buildings in the near vicinity.
7.1.3. Joseph Brant Hospital
In the south west region of the downtown growth area, is the Joseph Brant Hospital with a peak load of
2200 kWe. This is a key anchor load to support a DES and could benefit Burlington in a manner similar
to the Markham District Energy 2013 IDEA
System of the Year (previously described in
Section 5.5.1 of this report).
We understand the hospital expansion has
already been tendered and is already under
construction with a private public partnership
(PPP), using BAU infrastructure.
FVB has previously studied CHP at this facility and
maintain it is a significant opportunity to embed
2‐3 MWe of generation in the downtown core.
With current IESO funding support, the savings
could support additional medical equipment to
be incorporated into the hospital. The recovered
heat would be fully utilized within a thermal network which could include the hospital, the long term
care facility and the nearby Art Gallery of Burlington (608,000 kWh/year and 68,000m3/year).
We understand that it is not possible to modify the design at this time, but FVB strongly suggest that
CHP be revisited with the Joseph Brant Hospital to provide a dominant anchor to a DES development
for the City Of Burlington and increase the City’s resiliency, and improve the Hospital’s energy and
environmental performance. This is a major focus in Greening Healthcare program (founded in 2003)
and its efforts to promote energy efficiency / sustainability and benchmark healthcare facilities.
www.greeninghc.com
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7.1.4. Skyway WWTP
The Skyway Waste Water Treatment Plant is owned and operated by Halton Region.
FVB suggest that this site may be of interest for
behind the meter CHP (with digester gas and
natural gas augmentation) owing to current
financial PSUI incentives, its proximity to the
Hospital and be of consideration to further
anchor DES in Burlington.
7.1.5. Canada Centre for Inland Water
By review of the Burlington Community Energy Plan (Appendix B), we understand that the Canada
Centre for Inland Waters features an 800 kWe CHP installation which has not been operated in several
years. This Federal Government facility is in the extreme south of Burlington (under the Skyway Bridge)
and far removed from consideration of thermal utilization within the Downtown Growth Area.
Several similar CHP facilities exist within the province and were abandoned years back when the natural
gas prices had peaked. It is possible the champions of this project may have retired.
FVB Energy recommend further evaluation of the future of this facility, why the CHP was abandoned and
to reconsider if this asset is in appropriate condition and feasible to reinstate. While this is on Federal
Land and is beyond the influence of the City of Burlington, this CHP opportunity would support resiliency
and relieve electrical loading on the grid.
7.2. Mobility Hubs The redevelopment of the Mobility Hub areas should benefit from CHP and DES systems in the future.
Timing of the redevelopment of these areas is unknown, but some developers are already taking
advantage of opportunities. Some of the ‘descriptive’ information regarding the Mobility Hubs is
sourced from the ‘Mobility Hubs Opportunities and Constraints’ study completed for the City by
Brook/McIlroy and ARUP in 2014. The city considers these areas to be significant opportunities for
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redevelopment and is intending to prioritize the Mobility Hubs to create master plans starting this year
(2016), with policies to be developed through the Official Plan review.
When these Mobility Hubs are developed, they will support walkable communities with high density
development and associated electrical and thermal loads. In this manner, these will be sites featuring
multi residential, commercial and employment facilities.
It is recommended that this development be influenced to feature DES with CHP and also pursue
significant developments, such as future College or University Campuses (as with the future York
University – Markham Centre Campus near Markham District Energy) or other anchor clients. See
Section 4.1.9 for other suggestions for City of Burlington to support DES.
Importantly, these Mobility Hubs (with inclusion of DES CHP) would also partially address the
Transportation component of Burlington’s Community Energy Plan. Efforts to secure a dominant anchor
load, such as a University Campus to site a larger CHP would be beneficial. Currently, three Mobility
Hubs are under consideration and are based on the existing GO Stations as follows;
7.2.1. Appleby Mobility Hub
The Appleby Mobility Hub is considered to be the eastern gateway to the City of Burlington and a major
transit station area. The area currently contains a mix of land use designations including General
Employment north of the rail corridor, Mixed‐Use Corridor (Employment and General) along Fairview
Street, and Business Corridor adjacent to the QEW highway. There is significant underutilized land
through this area, with a growing market for mixed use development. It is expected buildings will be
mid‐rise in character (6 to 10 storeys) at 986,000 m2.
Although a little outside the mobility hub, there could be potential to investigate opportunities with
three schools in close proximity between New Street and Pinedale, along with a seniors residence.
7.2.1.1. Appleby GO Station
Currently, the GO Station has an electrical load which ranges from 125 to 225 kWe. This size is generally
below recommended CHP implementation, though it may be of interest as a containerized reciprocating
engine CHP project.
The nearby region is includes industrial hosts which may be candidates for behind the meter CHP
initiatives and able to utilize a significant amount of recovered heat in the manufacturing and cleaning
processes. At this time, the economy is challenging to significant energy investments from industrial
clients.
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7.2.2. Burlington Mobility Hub
This is a Gateway Mobility Hub for Burlington and will link with Downtown Burlington. The area is
currently designated a Mixed‐Use Corridor along Brant Street, Mixed Use Corridor (Commercial) south
of the rail corridor, and General Employment north of the rail corridor and along Plains Road. There is
significant underutilized land throughout the study area and residential neighbourhoods to the south
and northeast. There is opportunity for new, higher density mixed‐use development along Fairview
Street with at‐grade retail and prestige employment on the north side of the rail corridor.
7.2.2.1. Burlington GO Station
Currently, the GO Station has an electrical load which ranges from 60 to 90 kWe. This size is generally
below recommended CHP implementation, though it may be of interest as a smaller CHP. It is
surrounded by detached residential, box stores and automobile dealerships which are modest heat
loads. Development of a thermal network is somewhat challenged by the 403 and the rail.
7.2.3. Aldershot Mobility Hub
The Aldershot Mobility Hub is the western gateway to the City and is considered a major transit station
in the Province’s Growth Plan. It currently includes a mix of land use designations including Mixed Use
Corridor along Plains and Waterdown Roads, General Employment west of Waterdown Road and South
of the rail corridor, and predominantly Business Corridor north of the rail corridor. This mobility hub
area is also adjacent to the Plains Road Mixed Use Corridor. There are a number of large opportunity
sites that could be redeveloped, including a large vacant area on the south side of the rail corridor, large
surface parking lots for GO parking, the King Paving site, etc. Industrial and commercial sites could be
P a g e | 37 Integrated Community Energy Feasibility Study ‐ 215247
investigated, including a greenhouse and a cement manufacturing plant. There is a growing market for
mixed use development and the area is expected to include a range of mid to tall mixed use buildings
on, or adjacent to, Waterdown Road.
7.2.3.1. Aldershot GO Station
Currently, the GO Station has an electrical load which ranges from 60 to 100 kWe. This size is generally
below recommended CHP implementation, though it may be of interest as a smaller CHP project.
7.3. Economic Prosperity Corridor The economic prosperity corridor is a substantial region of the City of Burlington running east to west
with the QEW running down the middle. Similar to the Downtown Growth Area, this node is substantial
in size and mature in its development. Many of the buildings are aging, but there are no significant
demolition and redevelopment regions which are identified. Remaining vacant Greenfield lots are
generally smaller and somewhat isolated from each other as well as from existing significant facilities.
This Corridor should implement energy measures similar to the strategy proposed for the Downtown
Growth Area – deployment of behind the meter CHP for key existing sites and future developments with
an intention to interconnect thermal loads.
This corridor contains the Appleby GO Station and the McMaster DeGroote Nodes.
The following regions of the Economic Prosperity Corridor are of consideration.
7.3.1. McMaster DeGroote School of Business
The McMaster DeGroote School of Business currently has an electrical load of 190 to 280 kWe. It is in
the south central region of the Economic Prosperity Corridor and is diagonal to the Appleby GO Station
(and its aforementioned food
manufacturing industrial hosts).
These sites could each mutually
benefit from modest initial
deployment of CHP with subsequent
interconnection of their thermal
distribution systems.
Currently, approximately 11 acres of
Greenfield exists to the west and
the south west of the McMaster
DeGroote School of Business. A
report by Energy Plus (March 2015)
identified that this site could suit a
possible development of 475,000 sf
but did not identify if this is based on any actual development plan or when it may be anticipated. If
such a development were to materialize, it would be an appropriate trigger for DES consideration.
P a g e | 38 Integrated Community Energy Feasibility Study ‐ 215247
For this employment zone, residential development is not permitted. Furthermore, the proximity of the
highway to the north poses a major barrier, however there is merit for further assessment of this site.
7.3.2. City Owned Athletic and Recreation Centres
City owned athletic and recreation centres are public facilities which are accessible to, and utilized by, all
of the residents of Burlington. The City owns these facilities and is therefore directly able to implement
CHP and DES initiatives within them. Often these facilities have features such as swimming pools,
skating rinks, change rooms / showers, community meeting rooms, and daycares.
Based on this features, establishing CHP measures at these facilities will showcase the City being
proactive to the Community Energy Plan to its residents. While these may result in smaller CHP
installations, they may be configured to operate as Emergency Reception Centres (see Section 5.2 of this
report) for the public during events when the remainder of the City may be without power or heat. This
also enables the City to utilize these facilities for the community and enables its residents to hosted and
informed during these prolonged events.
Tansley Woods Recreation Centre (71,000 sf, 1,915,000 kWh/year, peak load of 869 kWe,
246,000 m3/year of natural gas).
Appleby Arena (131,000 sf, 2,898,000 kWh/year, 446,000 m3/year of natural gas).
Mainway Recreation Centre (80,000 sf, peak load of 307 kWe, 117,000 m3/year of natural gas).
There may be potential to investigate opportunities to connect a system with nearby industrial
facilities.
Haber Community Centre (90,000 sf). This is slightly outside of the identified boundary but
worth consideration as it is a brand new facility.
Central Park Complex – see discussion in Section 5.1.2.
7.4. Other Opportunities The following represent the balance of identified DES opportunities at this time.
7.4.1. Uptown
This node is slightly outside of the boundary definition for the Economic Prosperity Corridor (Appleby
and Upper Middle) but is anticipated to future 6.8 Ha development based on a prediction of 315 people
(and jobs)/ Ha.
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8. Review of Planning Policies to Encourage District Energy The following are examples that FVB is aware of where municipal government or their wholly or partly
owned corporations have adopted policies to encourage connection to DES, in addition to connection of
City owned buildings, which is almost universal in the case where the City has an ownership stake in the
DE system. See Section 6.1.9 of this report for recommended policies to encourage DES.
8.1. City of Toronto The City of Toronto has a By Law that states developers must consider connection if it is available and
connect if it is competitive. The effect is to give DES at least “a foot in the door” to present proposals to
developers. As such it probably has had some positive influence on the continued expansion of the local
DE Company, Enwave Energy Corporation, which is partly owned by the City. However, the qualifier “at
a competitive price” is a significant loop‐hole, since, ultimately, that is left to the judgment of the
developers who naturally emphasize first‐cost over long‐term costs; long‐term costs are often not their
concern, e.g. in the case of condominiums.
An example of where this approach in Toronto failed is in the re‐development of the railway lands. A
proposal for district energy (DE) service was made to the developer, but was rejected as “non‐
competitive” because it required an up‐front capital contribution from the developer that was necessary
because TDHC had no alternative source of financing to extend its infrastructure. It is likely that a major
extension of the DES into the railway lands could have occurred if this By Law had been backed by some
form of funding support for infrastructure or development charges that could have been imposed on the
developer and used for DE infrastructure.
8.2. City of Markham In Markham, development of the DE system, Markham District Energy (MDE), which is wholly owned by
the City, has been actively supported by the City. For example, the Mayor at the time MDE was formed
in 2001, was Don Cousens who (with the help of the President of Markham Hydro – Peter Faye) pitched
the concept of DE to the anchor customer, IBM, and was influential in supporting the marketing of the
system to the original developers who agreed to connect their buildings.
The current Mayor (Frank Scarpitti) is also involved in promotion of DE to developers and will have the
occasional lunch with developers who plan to build in Markham Town Centre and encourage them to
connect to DE. This commitment to DE runs through the entire Town of Markham right down to the
most junior staff member.
Development approval is subject to a number of requirements, one of which is sustainability, and the
sustainability requirement is automatically deemed to be satisfied by connection to DE. The results
have been that although there is no mandatory connection in Markham Centre, the connection rate of
new development has been 100% and currently 27 buildings are connected.
The development process is summarized below – see checklists and report cards;
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http://www.markham.ca/wps/portal/Markham/BusinessDevelopment/MarkhamCentre/TheMarkhamC
entreStory/PerformanceMeasures
8.3. Lonsdale Energy Corporation Lonsdale Energy Corporation (LEC) is a district energy utility wholly owned by the City of North
Vancouver. Initially, as part of its overall plan for DE, the City of North Vancouver established a Hydronic
Heat Energy Service By Law that applied to the planned service area, known as Lower Lonsdale. It
required new or retrofitted buildings to install hydronic systems, a pre‐requisite for district heating. This
By Law has been challenged in court under the Canadian Charter of Rights but the court has upheld the
right of the municipality to enforce this By Law.
In 2010, the City passed a new By Law (8086) that requires any new building in the entire City of more
than 1,000 square meters gross floor area to connect to the district heating system unless it is
determined by the City's Director of Finance that the cost to the City would be excessive. By Law 8086
also allows LEC to provide cooling services, but connection of properties to a district cooling system
(should LEC develop one) is optional.
8.4. Regent Park Energy Regent Park Energy Inc. has a customer base created by development of a mixture of approximately 1/3
public and 2/3 private multi‐unit residential building units on Toronto Community Housing Corporation
owned land. The development by TCHC and real estate co‐developer Daniels Corporation will take place
in six phases and create approximately 5,000 new residential units.
The market risk for this DES is mitigated by the commitment of TCHC and the co‐developer to connect
all of the new buildings (except about 500 townhomes). The co‐developer agreed to connect their
buildings under the co‐development agreement with TCHC. This agreement was no doubt facilitated by
the facts that TCHC owned the land and it is in an excellent location for development, close to
downtown.
8.5. South East False Creek The South East False Creek Neighborhood Energy Utility (anchored by the 2010 Olympic Athletes Village)
is owned and operated by the City of Vancouver. It commenced operation towards the end of 2009.
The City of Vancouver owned the land and entered an agreement with a real estate developer, which
included connection of the new buildings to DE.
8.6. City of Victoria The City of Victoria awarded development rights to City owned land at Dockside Green based on a
competition. The resulting development agreement committed the developers to establish a DE utility,
among other sustainability features, and connect the new buildings to it.
8.7. Other Jurisdictions Integrated Community Energy Systems are currently being evaluated and / or implemented in numerous
municipalities including Guelph, Newmarket, Woodstock, Kingston and others.
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9. Recommendations and Next Steps Never in the past 25 years has been a better time to consider the benefits of ICES in the City of
Burlington. Furthermore, with the aggregated thermal interconnections, the economies of scale
improve for inclusions of associated technologies to yield an Integrated Community Energy Plan
featuring;
Improved efficiency with the inclusion of CHP. This embedded generation improves resiliency
and is an eligible measure in conformance with the Ontario Energy Board mandate to the Local
Distribution Companies (LDC) to support energy conservation in their CDM targets.
Heat recovery and thermal storage.
Inclusion of renewable resources ‐ at a later time.
Developments which are “future proofed” and able to readily incorporate new technology at
the Energy Centre.
With the forecast for increasing electrical costs and stable natural gas pricing, the “spark spread”
(differential natural gas versus electrical unit pricing) supports the measures recommended in this
report. There is also considerable financial support to implementation (Section 8.4 of this report).
9.1. Recommended Nodes It is clear that the development of DES in identified nodes will secure the economic and environmental
benefits described in this report as well as the 2014 City of Burlington Community Energy Plan. As per
the discussion in this report, and review of Appendices A and B, it is clear that each node has its own
unique characteristics and triggers for DES consideration.
At this point, we suggest that DES development may be further investigated in the following order;
1. The Downtown Core ‐ the City Hall / Burlington Centre for the Performing Arts node features a
high content of municipal assets, highest density, and no physical barriers to implementation.
With the ability of the City to influence DES, a showcase installation in the core of the City will
be well positioned to readily interconnect to existing facilities as well as forecast infill
development.
2. Existing electric heating multi residential buildings represents an opportunity to utilize existing
electrically heated facilities to establish a CHP with thermal energy to be distributed to nearby
multi residential facilities. This offsets the high cost of electricity to heat and cool these
buildings.
3. It is strongly recommended that the development of the Mobility Hubs be DES ready with CHP
in these medium density sites.
4. The City owned Athletic and Recreation facilities also may be readily able to immediately
establish smaller DES and enable them to be established as Emergency Centres during electrical
outage events and enhance the resiliency of the Community.
5. The McMaster DeGroote node in the Economic Prosperity Corridor may warrant consideration
when the adjacent Greenfield is considering development.
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6. Identified sites which have high electrical loads to establish CHP and may be in proximity to one
or more schools. Schools offer an excellent opportunity to showcase the technology to the
students so that the DES concept may be included in the curriculum and become the “default
BAU” for the upcoming generation – and their parents.
9.2. Next Steps
9.2.1. Appointment of DES Project Champion
The Community Energy Plan and the participation of the City of Burlington upon this report
demonstrates a commitment to the merits of DES. It is suggested that the City of Burlington appoint a
champion to the DES initiative to continue the momentum. This champion will provide a focus to all
internal and external stakeholders and a single point of accountability. The qualifications of this role
may be drawn from a business and/or engineering background or it may be someone who has a
sustained passion for the merit of DES to the community and an understanding of the relevant pillars of
success. The champion should also facilitate site visits to other DES systems for their team of inter
disciplinary committee stakeholders to enable discussions of project success and lessons learned.
9.2.2. Public Information to Attract Potential Customers
Continue to keep the residents of the City informed of the intention to develop DES for resiliency and
sustainability within the City of Burlington in the context of the Community Energy Plan. Initiate
information sessions with the public and developers who are anticipated to be active in the City to
ensure they are fully aware of the sustainability benefits of DES and its advantages to Community. This
will be important for the public to drive the interest and for the facilities to interconnect.
The recent micro turbine CHP at Burlington Hydro should continue its role to be a showcase for the
public to gain access to a representative CHP. Burlington Hydro should also release performance data of
the economic and environmental benefits of this installation.
It is also important to establish information of the DES systems which are in Ontario and representative
of the opportunity to Burlington. Markham District Energy (see Section 3.5.1 of this report) and
Hamilton Community Energy (see Section 3.5.2 of this report) are excellent examples of DES which are
also generally supportive of plant tours and meetings to discuss their systems.
9.2.3. Proceed to Business Case Studies
The opportunities in the previously identified short‐listed nodes should proceed to a more detailed
Business Case Study. The following parameters describe a more detailed investigation to more fully
assess the eligibility;
For the identified groupings of buildings, engage the owners to establish who has interest for
DES consideration for a Business Case Study, or interest in a meeting to learn more about the
Community Energy initiatives.
Continue discussions with Burlington Hydro with particular interest in the Connection Impact
Assessment of the CHP in the grid.
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Review of the candidate sites for the central plant to be located with particular attention to
buffer zones around the plant for air emissions and noise mitigation and future expansions.
Review specific key facilities to establish which have interest to either implement behind the
meter CHP within their facility or thermally interconnect to a proposed DES.
Review node relative to ability to develop a distribution system and ability to install during
roadwork or transit developments.
Undertake site inspections and interviews of existing key facilities and anchor tenants who may
interconnect;
o Confirm hot water heating systems are present ‐ rather than gas fired rooftop air
handling units,
o Rooftop penthouse versus grade level mechanical room. It is desirable that candidate
buildings have constant diameter hot water risers to enable the facilities to be district
energy ready,
o Review a minimum of 12 consecutive months of electrical and natural gas billings to
establish load profiles,
o Electric versus gas fired domestic hot water systems – confirm presence of thermal
storage,
o Unique thermal loads such as swimming pools, hot tubs,
o Age of major equipment (boilers, chillers) and remaining reliable life expectancy until
reinvestment,
o Interest to interconnect to DES.
Based on the above findings, the Business Case Study for each would result in;
o An indication of the contemplated facilities which would be involved,
o An aggregated thermal load and commentary of thermal resiliency / redundancy,
o An indication of whether the DES will feature an energy centre or if CHP equipment may
be embedded in a specific facility,
o An indication of the CHP sizing which may be achieved with a representative selection,
o A conceptual layout of the DES, and piping routings, etc.
o Based on the amount of piping and energy transfer stations, a cost estimate and
feasibility study of the DES initiative can be developed,
o An indication of the environmental performance benefits relative to BAU,
o A preliminary schedule of the DES implementation.
With this information, this document will enable the City of Burlington to re‐visit the DES initiatives
within its Community Energy Plan. It has been shown that Community Energy initiatives leads to
attracting premium employment within the City and associated jobs for its residents. The business case
study will also enable Burlington to assess its further interest in DES Ownership or pursue alternative
models.
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9.3. Review of Ownership Models During the execution of the Business Case Studies, the City of Burlington should be considering the
Ownership Model of the DES. The cost to implement a DES system is significant but the City of
Burlington will need to address how it may be implemented.
DES is a mature technology with support by qualified consultants, developers, equipment vendors and
contractors. There are numerous examples of successful DES, but there is still risk associated with any
project. Generally, there are 3 Ownership Models as follows;
Public Sector – the City maintains the ownership and is able to maintain better control of the
DES and its potential for expansion and long term operation. The City is generally better
positioned to carry long term, lower interest type projects and is able to seek support from FCM.
Examples include Markham, Ottawa, Vancouver, etc.
Private Sector – a private developer takes the lead in the design and operation of the facility. As
they seek an appropriate return on investment, the preference is either for high demand
greenfield developments of suitable size or the purchase of an existing DES (an example is
Enwave).
Public Private Partnerships are a hybrid of the above ownership models.
The overwhelming majority of DES which are in operation are developed by the public sector.
9.4. Review Funding Sources Several sources may exist for financial support with various programs. These programs have different
requirements and end of program dates but should be reviewed for eligibility.
Save on Energy Process and Systems (PSUI) for behind the meter cogeneration with combined efficiency
greater than 65% on an annual basis.
https://www.saveonenergy.ca/Business/Program‐Overviews/Process‐and‐System‐Upgrades.aspx
Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA)
http://www.bomabest.com/about‐boma‐best/
Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) Green Municipal Fund
http://www.fcm.ca/home/programs/green‐municipal‐fund.htm
Union Gas
https://www.uniongas.com/business/save‐money‐and‐energy
Natural Resources Canada (NRCAN)
http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/energy/funding/4943
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Burlington Hydro
http://burlingtonhydro.com/
Government of Canada – Infrastructure Canada Gas Tax Fund
http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/plan/gtf‐fte‐eng.html
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Appendix A. Map of Downtown Burlington
WESL
EY ST
.
BERDEA DR.
MILN
E LAN
E
WA RDRD.
EDITH AVE.
CA MPBELL CRT.
WANDA DR.
BRUCE ST.
PEAR
SON S
T.
FIRST ST.
BLENHEIM ST.
SWANSONCR T.
BIRCH AVE.
KAREN DR.
BLAIRHOLM AVE.
LEGI
ON R
D.
ROSS
ST.
EMER
ALD S
T.
STIN
SON
AVE.
RAYMORE DR.
CAROLINE ST.
MARIA ST.
PINE ST.
BREN
TWOO
D DR
.
FAIRLEIGH PL.
INDI
ANR D
.
TEEN TOUR WAY
MARL
EY CRT.
OLGA DR.
YOUNG AVE.
PERR
Y DR.
REDFERN RD.
HARRIS CR ES.
NEW
BOLD
DR.
JAMES ST.
GREENWOOD DR.
HALIFAX PL.
EDEN PL.
MARK
ET ST
.
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LegendOP_Sched_E_colour
Boundary of Downtown MU CentreDT Major Inst PrecinctDowntown Core PrecinctEmerald Neighbourhood PrecinctOld Lakeshore Road MUPResidential - Med. and or HighSt. Luke's NeighbourhoodWaterfront West Public LandsWellington Square Mixed Use
OP_Sched_B
Community CommercialMUC - EmploymentMUC - CommercialMUC - GeneralGeneral EmploymentEmployment CommercialRegional CommercialBusiness CorridorParkway Belt Plan AreaDeferralEnvironmentally Sensitive AreaGreenlandsLand Use Designation to be DeterminedMajor Parks and Open SpaceNeighbourhood CommercialReferralResidential - High DensityResidential - Low DensityResidential - Medium Density
hub_ld_areasName
PrimarySecondary
DOWNTOWN MOBILITY HUB STUDY AREA - (FARS)PRIMARY AND SECONDARY ZONESAND OFFICIAL PLAN DESIGNATIONS.Mobility Hub boundaries represent consultants' opinion and shouldnot be considered official versions of the Official Plan Schedules.Schedules should only be used for discussion purposes.
OCTOBER 23, 2015
P a g e | 47 Integrated Community Energy Feasibility Study ‐ 215247
P a g e | 48 Integrated Community Energy Feasibility Study ‐ 215247
Appendix B. Results of Screening Matrix
City of Burlington Screening Matrix for Appendix B
Integrated Community Energy SystemsFVB Energy Inc.
Downtown Growth Area Economic Prosperity Corridor McMaster DeGroote GO Aldershot Mobility Hub GO Burlington Mobility Hub GO Appleby Mobility HubDiscussion Core of the City with buildings which would be
utilized by all City of Burlington residents
Highest urban density
Anchors are located in extreme south west of the
node
U shaped node with majority of load in east
Limited City owned facilities to influence
development
Large node with QEW as east / west backbone
which poses challenges to development to
thermal distribution
Contained within Economic Prosperity Corridor in
south central setting
Located in West Central portion of City
South of zone is highly residential
North of node is bound by 403
West is bound by large cement manufacturing
facility
Located in Central Burlington and is north east of
Downtown Growth Area
Detached residential, box stores and automobile
dealership
Located in East side of City to the south of the
easternmost portion of the Economic Prosperity
Corridor
Detached residential to the south and heavy
industrial (food processing) to the west
Sizing and Intensity
of DES Node
largest and highest FSR Moderate ‐ significant amount of warehouse and
single storey
limited current development limited current development limited current development moderate development with near industrial and
seniors residence
Available Space for
Energy Centre
limited limited yes yes limited limited
Presence of an
Anchor Client
hospital
WWTP
City Hall
Burlington Recreational Centres McMaster DeGroote limited ‐ GO Station limited ‐ GO Station limited ‐ GO Station
Forecast Greenfield
Development
limited limited yes ‐ potential for 500,000 sf in adjacent
greenfield
yes limited limited
Redevelopment
within Existing Nodes
yes, but uncertain yes, but uncertain yes, but uncertain yes, but uncertain yes, but uncertain yes, but uncertain
Presence of Barriers
of Thermal
Distribution
no QEW QEW QEW and rail QEW and rail QEW and rail
Burlington Hydro
Interconnection
Capacity
Green Yellow Yellow Green Green Yellow
Timeframe to
Implement
fast with municipal facilities fast with municipal facilities uncertain uncertain uncertain uncertain
Ability of Burlington
to Influence DES
yes with municipal facilities yes with municipal facilities yes with greenfield development yes with greenfield development limited limited
Ability of Burlington
to Showcase DES
yes with muniicipal facilities yes with muniicipal facilities yes yes yes yes
LEGEND most desirable attribute
least desirable attribute
Z:\Burlington\Integrated Community Energy System Feasibility (215247)\400 Study\Burlington ICES Node Screening Matrix August 2015 18/01/2016