Enercare Centre At Exhibition Place
About Enercare Centre
Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario, is one of Canada’s largest entertainment venue, attracting millions of visitors each year. When the Board of Governors for Exhibition Place decided to make the grounds a showcase for energy efficiency in 2004, the board wanted the complex of buildings on Toronto’s waterfront to be a leader in the financing and use of energy-efficient technologies. The board was committed to make the grounds energy self-sufficient and one of the most significant investments in the plan was a trigeneration plant designed by Toromont Power Systems.
A Trigeneration Plant
The environmental plan for Exhibition Place had several components. The idea is to reduce energy consumption in three ways: one third through on-site power generation; one third by installing new technologies and equipment such as absorption chillers; and a final third by optimizing and controlling the energy used in operating the facilities. One of the most significant investments in the plan is a trigeneration plant, which was one of the largest in Canada when it opened in early 2007.
The system, a cogeneration plant with an added absorption chiller, provides heating, cooling, and power. It consists of a G3520E 1.6 MW natural gas-fired generator with a heat recovery package. The waste heat produced by the engine is recovered and supplied in the form of hot water to the absorption chiller, which also provides cooling in the summer and heat in the winter for the buildings. In winter the plant, which is located on the roof of the Enercare Centre, takes the waste heat from the engine and runs it through a heat exchanger to augment the centre’s boilers. In the summer, the waste heat drives the absorption chiller to provide cooling. By recovering waste heat, the plant improves overall efficiency to over 80 percent.
The generator provides 30 percent of the electricity as well as heating and cooling requirements to the Enercare Centre. It provides about 12 million kWh of energy per year and reduces annual energy consumption by the equivalent of 7,400 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
In addition to the high-efficiency system, Exhibition Place gets some of its energy needs from wind, geothermal, and solar power systems. The trigeneration plant was the first phase of a District Energy System (DES) that has been expanded across the 192-acre site.
The waste heat produced by the engine is recovered and supplied in the form of hot water to the absorption chiller, which also provides cooling in the summer and heat in the winter for the buildings. By recovering waste heat, the plant improves overall efficiency to over 80 percent.
A District Energy System
In 2014 construction of a new 27 story hotel began on the grounds. Rather than the building install its own boilers and chillers, Exhibition Place created a district energy system (DES) that could pipe surplus heat from the Enercare Centre to other buildings.
This DES is a thermal energy distribution system for multiple buildings and consists of a heating and cooling central plant within the Enercare Centre and a thermal network of pipes connecting groups of buildings. The DES provides hot water and heating and as well as cooling and chilled water to, Allstream Centre, Ricoh Coliseum, and Hotel X.
It is expected that Exhibition Place will earn over $500-thousand per year through the sale of thermal energy to the hotel. The DES system will help reduce local electricity demand and will provide heating and cooling to Exhibition Place when power is disrupted.
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