The university's conversion from a steam-based to hot water-based heating system is now five years into the project and is expected to be completed in December 2015.
The Academic District Energy System (ADES) is a six-year, $88 million project that was originally developed in 2010 in order to reach a sustainability goal of a 33 per cent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions per year.
“At this point, it looks like we’re going to be complete with the piping by the middle of September, and the Campus Energy Centre, the building that’s going to replace the existing steam powerhouse, should be up and running by October,” said Orion Henderson, the director for sustainability and engineering at UBC. “All the buildings should be converted over from steam to hot water… probably by December."
So far, the project is on schedule, but it has faced some difficulties.
“There are several instances where we’re dealing with extremely old buildings, which have direct steam heating in them, and so in those buildings, we’re having to make fundamental changes to the actual buildings,” said Jeff Giffin, UBC energy conservation manager.
“Initially, there was quite a lot of frustration with digging up a lot of parts of campus…. We’ve realized that there’s been a disturbance and we’ve made sure to coordinate with other projects that are going on campus,” said Henderson. “And I think finishing over 90 per cent of that construction work prior to the school year, I think that’s really going to help people’s fears as well.”
The ADES project does seem to be on track with its $88 million budget, according to Giffin. By the completion of the project, the ADES should save UBC up to $4 million a year in energy savings and an additional $1.5 million per year in cost avoidance. Realistically, this means that the project should be paid off in about 25 years from 2015.