Envida Community Energy Inc.’s combined heat and power facility planned for Guelph’s Hanlon Creek Business Park received a 20-year power contract with the Ontario Power Authority in April.
As part of its Community Energy Initiative, Guelph hopes to use cogeneration systems to provide at least 30 per cent of the city’s anticipated total electricity requirements—about 100 megawatts—by the year 2031.
Over the next two years, Envida Community Energy Inc., a subsidiary of Guelph Hydro Inc., will build the Hanlon Creek Business Park Combined Heat and Power facility, designed to improve the resiliency of the city’s electricity distribution system, contribute to reduced energy costs for Hanlon Creek businesses, and improve the City’s ability to attract new businesses in Guelph.
The natural gas-fired CHP facility will have the capacity to generate 10.2 megawatts of electricity—about four per cent of the entire city’s average demand for electricity. The electricity will be fed into the provincial grid under a 20-year contract with the Ontario Power Authority, granted under Ontario’s Combined Heat and Power Standard Offer Program.
Currently, temporary district energy systems operating in the business park provide heating and cooling to the buildings owned by Fusion Homes and Würth Canada Limited. Once the CHP facility is constructed, the companies and other Hanlon Creek businesses will be supplied from the new facility.
Envida’s first CHP facility is expected to be operational by the end of 2016.