Guelph Ontario: The City of Guelph has decided to rework its wide-ranging Community Energy Initiative to include a relatively modest program for district energy. The change in plans was partly in response to the mutually-agreed upon termination of a major district energy project that had been a centerpiece of the original plan. The municipally-owned energy company Envida, which had originally envisioned two 10 MW generation facilities at the core of a new district energy network, revised its plans in 2016 when it became apparent that there would not be enough customers to use all the thermal energy from the plants. Instead, two small temporary plants will continue to operate and serve a much smaller number of customers in the Hanlon Creek Business Park and Sleeman Centre, while the City encourages the gradual growth of a distributed thermal energy network. A report tabled with Guelph City Council January 16 confirmed that the 20-year power supply contracts with the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) for the previously planned power stations had been recently terminated by mutual agreement of Envida and the IESO. Nonetheless, many of the key people involved remain optimistic about the future for Combined Heat and Power (CHP) under the city’s new plans.
On April 25 2016 the Council unanimously approved a process to update Guelph’s Community Energy Initiative (CEI) with a different approach to district energy. Prior to the update in 2016, Rob Kerr, the City’s Community Energy Manager, explained that “The City has learned a lot about the value of sustainable energy and its role in Guelph’s long-term ability to prosper since the Community Energy Plan was developed in 2007.” He noted at the time that, “The updated CEI will reflect what we know now and re-establish the CEI as a community-led initiative by engaging the community to reaffirm Guelph’s energy priorities and lead future success.” The CEI Update will take just under a year to complete and is expected to go before Council at the end of March 2017.
The City of Guelph has prided itself on being a leader in North America in terms of developing and publishing plans for a city-wide thermal energy network — what it describes as “a kind of central heating and cooling system for the entire city.” Guelph’s updated District Energy Strategic Plan is intended to set out “a path to improve how thermal energy — heating and cooling — is generated, delivered and used throughout the community.” The broader Community Energy Initiative (CEI) is Guelph’s 25-year plan to use 50 per cent less energy per capita and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent per capita. The City says it “set the bar for similar municipal initiatives across Canada and established Guelph as a leader in community-based energy conservation.”
Longer term, the updated city-wide plan for interconnected district energy systems is expected to benefit the City by:
• Creating jobs, attracting private investment and partnerships, and keeping energy dollars in the community
• Reducing energy price volatility and long-term costs for building operators
• Increasing the security of Guelph’s energy supply, and keeping energy dollars in Guelph.
According to the plan, Guelph’s district energy network will:
• Provide at least 50 per cent of Guelph’s total heating needs
• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions from heating
• Contribute significantly to goals of the Community Energy Initiative.
The Guelph Mercury reported that as a result of the termination of the two 10 MW district energy facilities, the capital cost of the downtown’s Galt District Energy System was written down by $3.6 million, while the entire capital cost of building the thermal energy plant in the Hanlon Creek Business Park was written off.
For more information, readers may visit:
http://guelph.ca/plans-and-strategies/community-energy-initiative/district-energy-strategic-plan/.