District energy system is viable for city centre

Surrey Civic Centre District Energy Feasibility Study

The City of Surrey studied the feasibility of a district energy system (DES) for its new civic centre and its growing central business area. A DES distributes heating and cooling to a number of buildings from a central source. The study team decided that a geothermal system could serve the buildings in the civic centre complex. For the next phase of downtown development, the team recommended a gas-fired boiler plant. Phase 3 would replace the gas-fired system with a large biomass-fueled plant. The DES will be operated by Surrey City Energy, a municipally-owned utility created in January 2011.

Results

Challenges

• Designing a heating and cooling system to serve up to 800,000 square metres by 2030
• Meeting the renewable energy requirement of the City's sustainability charter
• Expanding the district energy system through three phases of downtown development
• Developing a customer base that will follow the system from natural gas to a low-carbon renewable fuel source

Lessons learned

• Consider the needs of future customers when planning a district energy system.
• Examine existing systems in other cities to gain a full appreciation of technologies and their benefits.
• Create a project team with technical, financial and regulatory expertise.

Partners and Collaborators

• City of Surrey, BC
• FCM's Green Municipal Fund
• Kerr Wood Leidal
• Compass Resource Management
• Hemmera
• Wellons Canada

Project Contact

Jason Owen
Acting Manager District Energy Section
City of Surrey, BC
T. 604-591-4742