How best to calculate DE System Connection Costs?
Thank you for your enquiry. District heating and cooling is growing rapidly in Canada, and the CDEA is setting up a data base to collect information that will help us better promote district energy on behalf of members and also provide information that is useful to members. Your enquiry helps us shape requirements. The CDEA is committed to developing expanded capacity for design and construction in Canada. While we have not secured information on energy transfer stations and building conversion yet, we attach some information that might be useful to you.
The following is a deck on the subject of building connections.
An excellent handbook prepared for the IEA is as follows.
While it is not our policy to promote any particular suppliers, we can provide you with a list of our members who may be helpful in establishing the cost of units and possibly installed costs.
For your information, we provide an excerpt on sub-station pricing from a 1995 report on district energy for the City of Metropolitan Toronto. This should not be used directly for estimating purposes but can serve to illustrate the impact of scale.
We would caution that the installations of an energy transfer station may not always be sufficient. It is necessary to check the existing heating equipment, coils, radiation surface etc. to make sure that it can function under the new operating temperatures. Also, it is important to achieve a low enough return temperature from buildings so as to achieve a sufficient delta T between the supply and return pipes in the distribution system. It has been a common problem that the delta Ts are too small (ideally they will be 30 C to 40 C) to reduce the flow required for heating and thus minimize pipe sizes. Also, heat meter accuracy is affected at small delta Ts.
We trust that this information is useful for now and the CDEA will work toward gathering price data in the coming months.
Sincerely,
The District Energy DR
Dear District Energy DR,
I am currently performing a pre-feasibility study of creating a heating-only district energy system in the Whitehorse area.
I am trying to get a very high level cost estimate that would be incurred by a district energy provider from installing a DES. I have gotten quite far, but have no data (and no idea!) about the potential costs of the interconnection between the DES and participating buildings and the approximate annual operation & maintenance costs (again, costs that would be incurred by the district energy provider, not the building itself).
I know these costs could range largely depending on the sizes of buildings served, energy usage, types of building served etc., but I don’t even have a ballpark number to draw from at the moment.
I am wondering if someone in the CDEA could shed light on my situation…
I have summarized some key system information below:
- Heating only DES
- Main heating plant is fueled by biomass
- Consumer interconnections are planned to be indirect (and will be performing both building heating and domestic hot water loads)
- 25 building total are initially being connected – most of which are schools and community centres
- Building size ranges from 10 000 sq ft. to 120 000 sq. ft., however the average building is in the vicinity of 30 000 sq. ft.
How many District Energy facilities are in operation in Canada?
There are roughly 130 operating District Energy plants in Canada. The majority of these are larger institutions - like universities and hospitals - instead of interconnected, commercial enterprises or residential developments.
How many District Energy facilities are in operation in Canada?
How many North American District Energy Systems are powered by Municipal Solid Waste/Waste to Energy facilities?
The technology exists but it is not used extensively in North America.
Some of the MSW District Energy systems in Canada include
Charlottetown, PEI: System uses a mixture of municipal solid waste and forest biomass.
Burnaby, BC: The regional government is planning an 8 kilometer pipeline to carry hot water heated at the waste-to-energy plant to the Parklane Homes development, aka East Fraserlands.
Durham & York Regions, ON: Municipal regions of Durham and York broke ground on an energy-from-waste facility in August which will become the Durham York Energy Centre (DYEC). It will provide thermal energy through combustion technology by burning municipal solid waste at temperatures above 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit. In addition to biomass thermal, the DYEC will produce high-pressure steam running through turbine generators to create electricity.
How many, if any, North American district energy systems are powered by Municipal Solid Waste incinerators (aka Waste-to-Energy Facilities)?
How reliable is district energy?
District energy systems are among the most reliable sources of energy in the world. According to the International District Energy Association, most district energy systems operate at a reliability rate of 99.99 percent.
How reliable is district energy?
Is District Energy a new technology?
First - District Energy is actually not a technology at all. It is a means to generate and transmit thermal energy and can incorporate many different technologies and fuel supplies.
District Energy is not a new concept – systems originated in North America as early as the 1880s, when electric utilities were formed to serve growing cities.
Is District Energy a new technology?
What are the main advantages of District Energy?
There are a number of benefits to society and the individual consumer that come with District Energy.
• District energy systems can provide more efficient heating and cooling for residential and commercial customers, providing there is density of development. Taking into account the whole supply chain, a district cooling system can reach 5 or even 10 times higher efficiencies than traditional electricity-driven chillers.
• District heating plants can provide better pollution control than localized boilers.
• District energy systems are increasingly being seen as an important weapon in reducing CO2 emissions. According to some research, District Heating with Combined Heat and Power is the cheapest method of cutting carbon, and has one of the lowest carbon footprints, of all fossil generation plants.
• The one-time first costs for the end-user are reduced considerably, as the DE provider usually pays the up-front costs, and recovers them through rates. This can be particularly useful when more expensive alternative technologies are being considered. The Swedish experience is illuminating: since the 70’s district energy has grown to supply 50% of that country’s building area. Over the same time, systems have transitioned from relying almost entirely on imported oil to using a diverse mix of resources, including biomass, refuse and waste heat.
• A well-run district energy provider is also in a position to reduce costs by obtaining lower-cost fuel contracts, and switching between technologies and fuels when prices warrant.
• District energy systems can also provide a high quality of service, because there can be central redundancy and backup. As a result, district energy systems have continued to run even while there have been major outages on the electricity grids. For example, during the Eastern Canada ice storm in1998, all buildings on central heating in Montreal continued to be served by the district system. In fact, Place Ville Marie served as an emergency shelter during the storm.
What are the main advantages of district energy?
What is a low temperature DE system and why is it important?
The conversion of District Heating systems to low temperature water has many advantages for efficient operation and for future integration of renewable and waste energy resources. Specific aspects include the following:
- lower capital costs and energy losses for distribution systems;
- higher efficiency operation for heating plants through the use of condensing economizers;
- potential incorporation of CHP (combined heat and power or cogeneration) with reduced electricity output losses;
- ability to use industrial or low grade waste heat, heat pumps and, eventually, solar energy;
- ability to economically transport heat over longer distances and interconnect systems; and
- ability to use thermal storage for load management or to improve the economics of CHP.
Of particular benefit to the system is the achievement of low return temperatures and of a large temperature differential between the supply and return of the district energy system. This reduces the amount of water that is circulated to deliver energy resulting in lower pumping costs, smaller pipe sizes, and reduced operating and capital costs.
A comprehensive rationale is being developed including an economic analysis quantifying the advantages associated with lower temperature operation. The analysis takes into account the effects of future energy price increases or possible carbon taxes.
To encourage lower temperature design temperatures, rate structures will be developed to encourage load management (including peak shaving) and low temperature (particularly return temperature) operation. This will reinforce the value of low temperature design in buildings and provide the maximum potential for lowering overall cost and impacts.
What is a low temperature DE system and why is it important?
What is combined heat and power (CHP)?
CHP, also known as cogeneration, refers to the incorporation of electricity production into the generation capacity of a district energy system, increasing efficiency of production and reducing the amount of energy discharged into the environment as waste. Standard generation facilities effectively use approximately 40 percent of the fuel they burn to produce electricity. The other 60 percent of the fuel used in the electric production process ends up being "waste" heat that is rejected to the environment through smokestacks and cooling towers or dumped into a river.
What is combined heat and power (CHP)?
What is district energy?
District Energy (also called DE) refers to a community scale network of buried pipes that with the aid or steam, hot or chilled water carry thermal (i.e. heating and/or cooling) energy services to a collection of buildings in a defined geographic area. This thermal energy can be created using a variety of input feedstock fuels including biomass (forest, agricultural, municipal solid waste), biogas, renewable energy forms (eg. geo-exchange), natural gas, and cool water. As such, it provides the opportunity to utilize locally available fuels to generate hot and cool space heating at a community scale and-importantly-the opportunity to centrally substitute feedbstock fuels over time. This is an important way for communities to create sustainable, resilient energy delivery systems and manage risks of being dependent on any one fuel or technology.
What is district energy?
Where can I find a list of the top district energy systems in Canada?
The answer to this question certainly depends on the definition of "top" being used. However, regardless of system charactersitics there are a few places to begin your search.
https://www.cdea.ca/projects/map
Our interactive web map shows systems that are currently known to us, with more detailed data to come.
https://www.cdea.ca/resources/district-energy-canada-detailed-case-studies
We also have several case studies on canadian systems that are more detailed. These will be updated as more data becomes available.
There are many articles on different systems in our resources section. Please feel free to have a look.
Where can I find a list of the top district energy systems in Canada?
Why is district energy good for our cities?
District energy is especially efficient in dense urban areas where a large consumer base is located in close proximity to the generation facility and peak demand is very high. District cooling systems, in particular, displace peak electric power demand with steam-based cooling, district cooling, and storage using ice or chilled water. The alleviation of transmission congestion is achieved by diminishing the demand for electricity based heating and cooling during peak demand periods.
Why is district energy good for our cities?