How the Village of Telkwa became a mini biomass district heating system.

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1 How the Village of Telkwa became a mini biomass district heating system. In Nov 2013 the Village of Telkwa became the first municipality in Canada to install a European Boiler using the BC safety Authority Manual MAN Approval of Biomass Boilers for British Columbia, a process used to approve biomass boilers conforming to the essential safety requirements of the EC Directives and European standards. European manufacturers may utilize a Notified Body or Accredited Inspection Body, acceptable to the BCSA, to verify that a boiler satisfies specified requirements of the EC Directives and European standards, and have these boilers registered for use in BC. The Village is very proud it will become the first municipality under these regulations to be registered in BC using a Herz Firematic KW boiler. 1

2 The Village of Telkwa is located 356km or a 4.5 hour drive west of Prince George on highway 16 and at the confluence of the Bulkley and Telkwa Rivers. The Village current population is 1,470 people with approximately 500 business and/or residences. 2

3 This was the former Riverside municipal office. A new municipal building was considered by council since 2003 as it became apparent the municipality was outgrowing this aging building. In 2010, a building committee was struck to look into options for a new municipal office as in the spring of 2010 the building was found to be unfit for occupation. The Village of Telkwa was forced to either re-locate to an existing vacant building OR build a new building. Telkwa staff and council looked to their internationally recognized, award winning Official Community Plan and Integrated Community Sustainability Plan and decided to not build a new building when there was a vacant existing building in the downtown that fit within the municipalities vision. 3

4 Village staff and council found an opportunity with this derelict commercial building, formerly the meat co-op, bordering the highly visible Highway 16 corridor through Telkwa. Staff and council believed by acquiring the abandoned 10,000 so building and repurposing into the municipal office would provide additional opportunity to create and generate additional leased spaces in our downtown core. 4

5 In 2011 the Village of Telkwa purchased the Meat Co-op building. Now with ability to create new leased spaces as well as it proximity to a 20,000 so elementary school, a 7000 so restaurant, a vacant bakery and 5 single residential homes the vision of installing a bio mass district heating system was now a feasible option as an clean alternative energy solution to heat our downtown core. Through financial support from Omenica Beetle Action Committee and expertise from the Green Heat Initiatives (or Wood Waste to Rural Heat) Telkwa hired Wunderlin Consulting to write our Feasibility Study proving the business case for our now installed district heating system. 5

6 There was a clear need to renovate the exterior and a proven business case, provided by Wood Waste to Rural Heat, for installing green heat. So in May 2012, the Village of Telkwa applied to the Federal Gas Tax Innovation Fund for a complete exterior retrofit and the installation of a biomass district heating system. 6

7 In November 2012, the Village was made aware they would be awarded $644,320 from the Federal Gas Tax Innovation Fund for a complete exterior retrofit and the installation of a biomass district heating system. This successful award would now allow the retrofit of the Hankin Corner Building to proceed which would include installations of SIPS reno panels (Structural Insulation Panel Systems), new metal roofing, new windows and doors and much needed siding. It also allowed us to move forward with our biomass district heating system which no included a complete installation of a Herz Firematic KW boiler that would connect and supply heating to our local elementary school, restaurant and 5 single family residential homes. The Village again utilized Wunderlin Consulting s services to create a Request for Proposal (RFP) to supply and install biomass system. The Village received 4 bids for the project and in the end installed a Herz Firematic KW boiler supplied by Western BioHeat Corp. 7

8 In the fall of 2013 installation of the boiler system began. During the construction the Village supplied twin pre-insulated pex piping 4 ft under ground with no Glycol in the system. The pipe sizing ranged from 1.25, 1.5 & 2.5 in diameter over distances of 50 meters to 200 meters. The boiler was commissioned in November 2013 and has been supplying heated water to existing electric and natural gas systems which have been retrofitted with either heating coils, heat exchanges or European Style Residential Fan Coils. The System uses energy meters consisting of ultrasonic flow meters, two temperature sensors and an electronic counter. This data is recorded and then used to invoice the property owners every 2 months as would be by any other energy supplier at a reduced rate (20%). The Telkwa Elementary School acts as a backup system to the Village biomass system by use of its Viessmann Gas Boilers. This only occurs when the temperatures approach minus 30C and/or when our system is offline or cannot keep up with the demand cold weather demands required by the entire system. The Municipal Building is estimated use 540 GJ Annually The School is estimated use GJ Annually The Restaurant is estimated to use 200 GJ Annually The individual residences are estimated to use 100 GJ Annually CO2 reduction is estimated to be as high as 400 tonnes a year while having capacity to generate 1MW energy. Particulate matter is estimated to emit about 0.3g/kg. One of the factors the Village is proud of was its ability to act as the General Contractor. By doing so, the Village was able to reduce cost and make changes and/or decisions quickly, if or when required. Furthermore, other than the installation Boiler by others, the Village was able to hire local contractors to complete the remaining building retrofits and installation connections for the boiler to the other properties. 8

9 Typically, woodchips are produced locally with a Bandit 1390 XP HP chipper from reject slabs supplied by a local sawmill or from standing deadwood using our fuel management programs. The chips are either transported to the boiler chip bunker for immediate use or to a nearby open shed for sorting and storage. At the storage, most oversized chips are sorted out using an electric gravel screener. Screening is done in order to reduce auger clogging and boiler downtime. 2 supply chains were looked at Direct Supply & Indirect Supply. 1. The first supply chain includes: 1) Chipping and loading of truck at the mill 2) Transporting the chips from the mill to the boiler 3) Unloading of chips at the boiler 4) Loading of the chips into the chip bunker at the boiler. 2. The second supply chain includes: 1) Chipping and loading of truck at the mill 2) Transporting the chips from the mill to the storage 3) Unloading and storing the chips at the storage 4) Chip screening at the storage 5) Loading of the truck at the storage 6) Transporting the chips from the storage to the boiler 7) Unloading of chips at the boiler 8) Loading of the chips into the chip bunker at the boiler. In addition to the chipping cost, activity costs were estimated for the two supply chains (direct and indirect). These cost estimates were calculated based on the number of people engaged in and the time spent to undertake each activity. Ultimately, the costs were converted to $/ODt of wood chips delivered to and stored at the boiler. Calculations based on an hourly rate of $25 and a truckload of 1.5 ODt of wood chips transported up to 10 km suggest a total biomass cost of $93 for Direct Supply versus $102 9

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11 Thanks for your time today. We are happy to share out with other communities and proponents how our municipality successfully researched, funded and installed district heating. By following our OCP and ICSP and with some vision from staff and council we were able to take an empty building which was a liability to investment and turn it into a reason for new investment in our downtown core. We are very proud to be part of a better tomorrow vision and hope this helps anyone else wanting to install a small district heating boiler system. General Q & A 1.0 GJ = 948,000 Btu = 278 kwh (0.28Mega watt) 1.0 kw = 3413 Btu/hr 1.0 kwh = 3413 Btu 200 ODt (oven dried tonnes) = 500 m 3 of wood 1.0 ODt (oven dried tonnes) = 2.5 m 3 of wood Fresh Wood Chip = 350 kg per m 3 Wood Pellets = 650 kg per m 3 * Our OCP calls for revitalization of vacant buildings * Boiler Bids - $Bio Burner, $$ Herz Firematic , $$$Kob (Kuub Vantec) & $$$$ Froehling Considerations efficiency, emissions, technical options, cost to name a few played a role in decision 11