District Energy and Trigeneration Project

Currently the facilities at Exhibition Place are heated and cooled by relatively old and inefficient heating and cooling systems. This trigeneration pilot project is to be located in the National Trade Centre (NTC) on the Exhibition grounds. It is the sole source of electrical energy, heat and most cooling for the NTC, as well as a partial source for two other buildings – the Automotive Building and the Coliseum Arena. This project anticipates the decrease of energy consumption, a secure energy source for one third of the electrical energy demand for Exhibition Place, the heating and cooling of three facilities, and the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) emissions while saving money. There are currently only three trigeneration projects in Canada. This project is to be the largest and first municipally owned system. While this project consists of connecting only three buildings, the intent is to add other buildings once the trigeneration system is installed. The system will produce an estimated 12,000,000 kWh of electricity per year and provide heating and cooling for a total of 1,051,000 square feet of building space. It is estimated that the trigeneration system will lower energy consumption at Exhibition Place resulting in a net decrease of CO2 emissions by 9,067,545 kilograms (9,068 tonnes) per year.