Leading the charge in district energy

The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) has signed an agreement with Brookfield Energy Australia that will see the supply of cooling thermal energy under Broadway from the Central Park Thermal Plant.

In a move that will offer significant energy efficiency improvements, environmental impact reductions and even greater cost savings, UTS will source a proportion of its chilled energy requirements off-site from Brookfield’s Central Energy Plant. The contract sees a central plant providing energy to a precinct beyond its own requirement. If it is utilised to provide energy to other facilities in the wider Broadway and Ultimo vicinity, it will be a true district energy system.

The Central Park plant.

Richie Sheather, the CEO of Brookfield Energy Australia, sees further potential.

“Brookfield Energy Australia is pleased to be working with UTS on this innovative initiative. The more this plant is utilised, greater long-term energy cost efficiencies will be achieved for all users. We look forward to working with more properties in the local area to connect to this district system.

“We see District Energy as a way of the future and anticipate working on similar initiatives in other parts of Australia.”

Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore said thousands of apartments in the Central Park development were being supplied with clean energy from Brookfield’s Central Energy Plant, installed as part of an environmental upgrade agreement with the City of Sydney.

“It’s great news the network is now expanding across the road to UTS, and we hope to see other businesses and building owners in the area take advantage of the environmental efficiencies and cost savings district energy systems can bring,” the Lord Mayor said.

“With 80% of greenhouse gas emissions in the City of Sydney area coming from buildings, it’s important we keep looking for innovative ways to create sustainable, energy-efficient developments,” said Moore.

Innovation

The UTS $1.3 billion Campus Masterplan will see the development of new buildings and facilities that require further investment in on-site infrastructure, which includes increases in chilling infrastructure to meet increasing air-conditioning demand, crucial to keeping the campus operating smoothly for staff and students.

Rather than investing in new chilling infrastructure that would require utilising significant space and a high capital investment, UTS has taken the innovative approach to source its cooling energy from a recently developed precinct cooling plant located across the Broadway strip and accessed by thermal delivery pipes that have been bored underneath busy Broadway.

Deputy Vice Chancellor (Resources) Patrick Woods said, “UTS is committed to innovating and investing in research, working on new business models that will result in sustainable practices that have a positive effect on the precinct and the environment. We are constantly looking at ways we can reduce waste and our environmental footprint and the District Cooling project is just one example of our commitment in this area.”

UTS Green Infrastructure Project Manager Jonathan Prendergast said the move additionally frees up much needed space.

“Investment in new chilling infrastructure can be capital and space intensive, requiring new chilling plant, pumps, connecting pipework, cooling towers and electrical infrastructure. By procuring a portion of UTS’s cooling from an off-site supplier, UTS can invest in its core business and free up space for teaching, offices and a more active roof space without cooling towers.

“UTS already operate a large central plant that supplies heating and cooling to eight UTS Broadway Campus buildings. Off-site supply of chilling energy from Brookfield provides greater diversity of supply and redundancy for cooling the Broadway campus, reducing the risk of failure and outages,” Prendergast said.

This initiative is made even more feasible as it takes advantage of the peak and off-peak demands of the plant’s current customer, Central Park. The plant currently provides chilled energy to the Central Park apartments, whose main peak demand is typically in the evenings and on weekends. Conversely, UTS’s peak demands are weekdays and during the hot afternoons in summer months including February and November.

Heating, cooling and ventilation accounts for approximately 62% of UTS’s total electricity usage. The partnership will see UTS’s greenhouse gas emissions reduced by approximately 2.2% or 1111 tonnes CO₂-e per annum.

District energy systems are widely used internationally, particularly in North America and Europe. The Chicago District Cooling System supplies chilling to over 100 buildings in the Chicago CBD from just four energy plants and the Toronto system services over 140 buildings. In Sweden, seven cities incorporate district cooling systems.

Commitment to sustainability

UTS has a history of commitment when it comes to sustainable projects. As part of its Campus Masterplan, UTS is upgrading existing buildings to reduce water and energy use, and is constructing new buildings that are certified to a minimum 5-star Green Star rating, as well as improving cycling facilities, constructing green roofs and walls, installing stormwater recycling and rooftop renewable energy, and setting ambitious recycling targets for demolition and construction waste.

Three recently completed buildings — the Dr Chau Chak Wing, the Faculty of Engineering and IT and the Faculty of Science and Graduate School of Health — have won multiple awards for  design, architecture and construction, with the latter winning a hat trick of sustainability awards including a NSW Government Green Globe award, AIRAH Excellence in Sustainability award and an Architecture and Design Sustainability award.

More recently, UTS has entered an agreement to source 15% of the annual electricity consumption of the Dr Chau Chak Wing building from a solar farm in Singleton, New South Wales.

The cooling contract will see the purchase of chilling energy requirements for a 15-year period and is due to be implemented in 2018.

Top image credit: © fotoscool/Dollar Photo Club