District Heat Photos: Paul Alberts, City of Prince George Spreading the Warmth A number of communities are trying out biomass district heating: Prince George and Quesnel, British Columbia, and Strathcona, Alberta. By Treena Hein D isTriCT priNce george oN track heating is suddenly hot in western Can-ada. “Similar, yet different” is a good way to sum up the new projects in Prince George and Quesnel, British Columbia, and Strathcona, Alberta. While the end goal and system basics are the same—a connected group of buildings heated us-ing biomass-based energy—the details, journey, and challenges are more diverse. Construction of Prince George’s down-town district energy system (DES) got underway at the start of August 2011 and is going almost completely according to plan, says communications manager Mike Davis. Like other district heating systems, the DES involves the installation of pipes leading from the heat source to intercon-nected buildings. This work has been sandwiched in time between the removal and eventual reconstruction of existing road structures, curbs, gutters, and more. The DES will capture heat from a biomass-based boiler system already in place at the Sinclair Group Forest Products’ Lakeland Mills sawmill to generate heat and hot wa-ter. The equipment for the DES that’s be-ing installed at Lakeland will be owned by the City and operated by the mill. Wellons Canada is supplying the heat recovery system. Waste heat will be cap-tured from the mill’s exhaust stack and will also be netted from the excess capac-ity of the mill’s heating system. The hot gas will pass through a heat exchanger to heat fluid in the DES pipeline. A metered ex-change point at the mill will measure the energy that the City will purchase from Lakeland Mills. The heat will then pass through a hot water heating loop under the CN rail yards to the peaking/back-up plant downtown. “This will house the ABOVE: Hot water distribution pipes for Prince George, British Columbia’s district energy project are laid down outside City Hall. Canadian BIOMASS 25
Canadian Biomass September/October 2011: Page 25
