Client: Dalhousie University
Project Highlights
- Phase 1: New Roof, Cooling Towers, and Selective Site Demolition; Completed in 2019
- Phase 2: New Boilers, Chillers & Deaerator; Completed in 2021
- Phase 3: New Chilled Water Distribution Pumps; Completed in 2023
- Project Budget: $40M
Atlantic Canada’s Largest University Modernizes Aging District Energy Plant.
Dalhousie operates a large central heating and cooling plant and a district energy (DE) network which together currently services all three Halifax campuses as well as adjacent properties. This system provides heat for 95% of Dalhousie’s Halifax facilities, chilled water for space cooling to some major buildings on Studley and Carleton campuses and an electrical distribution network. Most of this central heating and cooling equipment was installed in the early 1970s and had reached the end of its useful life. Furthermore, campus growth during this 50-year period has eliminated any redundancy originally built into the system. Peak steam demand on the plant is 96% of the capacity of the two existing boilers, leaving no redundancy in case of boiler failure.
FVB Energy was hired in 2018 to fully assess all renewal options for the aging DE plant. These options included replacement, enhancement and integration of combined heat and power to further bolster the resiliency of the system. The result of this detailed study was Dalhousie Facilities Management receiving board approval in late 2019 to commence with the project for complete renewal of all assets.
The project was developed to meet the following goals:
- To provide a reliable, centrally located source of thermal heating and cooling in a long-term, cost efficient manner while achieving campus sustainability objectives.
- The central plant was originally designed to house four boilers, but only housed two. The additional space has been used for trade shops for Facilities Management for decades (carpentry, paint, welding, access control and instrumentation). These functions needed a new home to make space available for new heating and cooling equipment. An expansion to the existing Oxford Street warehouse was designed to house these shops.
- The district energy plant had to stay operational throughout construction.
FVB acted as the Prime and Mechanical consultant for the entire duration of the project including detailed design, procurement assistance, construction and commissioning support. Local sub-consultants from Dillon Consulting were utilized for architectural, structural and electrical design elements. One of the challenges, and ultimately one of the great successes, of this project was maintaining steam and chilled water service for the duration of the project implementation. This required careful design planning and a phased approach to construction. The major equipment included:
- Two new 85,000 lbs/hr steam boilers. One existing boiler was removed, and one was kept for redundancy.
- Two new 1,150 ton electric chillers. One 1,670 ton absorption chiller remained, and one R-12 electric chiller was removed.
- Two rooftop, induced draft, cross flow evaporative cooling towers.
- New roofing system and acoustic/noise attenuating screening
- New Steam Header and Deaerator
- Various pumps, variable frequency drives, transformer and electrical switchgear
More Information
Visit Dalhousie University Thermal Plant Renewal
Keywords
Thermal, Plant Renewal