Prince George, British Columbia Community Energy System
Type: Policy
Status: A draft proposal
Source File: http://www.city.pg.bc.ca/city_services/utilities/communityenergy/
Description:
A community energy system (CES) or district energy system produces hot water at a central plant and then pipes that energy out to the buildings for space heating and domestic hot water heating. A benefit is that individual buildings don't need their own boilers or furnaces since the CES does that work for them. Another benefit is that the community energy plant can use renewable fuels such as biomass, or pellets.
With escalating prices and the depletion of fossil fuels, the CES provides flexibility so that Prince George can increasingly minimize its reliance on fossil fuels and vulnerability to increasing prices. As the system grows the community can utilize other sources of energy like waste heat from local mills providing benefits to both the community and local industry - changing to use the most cost effective and environmentally sound sources of energy.
There is an excellent opportunity to develop a community energy system in Prince George
- Relatively Dense Downtown Core;
- A Large Number of Publicly Funded Buildings in Close Proximity;
- A Large Amount of Biomass Available in the Region;
- Natural Gas Costs are Volatile;
- Energy Dollars Are Currently Leaving The Community;
- Improved Regional and Local Air Quality.
Scope of Project
The proposed project is a new hot water Community Energy System (CES).
The CES will be located entirely within the City of Prince George, British Columbia, in an area bordered by the downtown core. It will include Energy Transfer Stations (ETS) in the buildings, a Distribution Pipe System (DPS), and a Central Energy Plant (location: 5th ave and Scotia St) that will have a multi-fuel boiler.
The Central Energy Plant will be built to meet the LEEDS Silver standard and will achieve energy performance standards of 25% better than Model National Energy Code.
The energy supplied to customers by the CES will be derived from wood pellets and biomass produced within the immediate Prince George region.
On an annual basis, the total thermal energy supplied to customers will be approximately 9,010 MWh thermal, displacing approximately 48,000 GJ of natural gas that would be consumed by the buildings for space heating and domestic hot water.