Charlottetown conducts energy audit with upgrades coming in 2021

The City of Charlottetown is moving ahead with upgrades to its facilities in 2021, to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

The city commissioned an energy audit of its buildings last year, as well as Eastlink Centre and the Bell Aliant Centre.

The audit was able to identify and cost out a set of retrofits, and many of them will happen in 2021.

"We've identified energy savings as related to the project, as well as operational savings in our facilities, and those have been quantified in our recommendations report," said Ramona Doyle, the city's manager of environment and sustainability.

"With our greenhouse gas emissions, we do have a corporate greenhouse gas inventory that we complete every year, so it is our intent to reduce the municipal facilities component of those emissions." 

Carbon neutral target

Doyle said the city has set a corporate target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in municipal operations by 40 per cent by 2030, and across all corporate operations to be 100 per cent renewable and carbon neutral by 2050.

Some of the recommendations include lighting improvements, solar projects, improvements to the HVAC systems and how buildings are sealed, Doyle said.

Doyle said the city has already been doing some energy efficiency upgrades, but they have been more piecemeal, including lighting upgrades at all three city parkades, the police station, city hall and the city works facility.

"What we're hoping to do with this project is get a more comprehensive project together," Doyle said. 

"Major upgrades in lighting for those facilities that haven't had the lighting upgrades, the HVAC systems will be a fairly large investment as well."

A really big lesson learned is we really have to think about how we build smarter for the future.— Ramona Doyle

Doyle said there is also a renewed focus on net-zero buildings, something the city will be looking at for any new builds in the capital budget.  

"When you're looking at building a new facility, that's something you can do, now especially at a relatively decent cost," Doyle said.

"You are going to pay more, but you're going to see that saving, through your maintenance over time."

Doyle said the upgrades will take between 18 months and two years.

"I think we've identified some really great projects, but I think a really big lesson learned is we really have to think about how we build smarter for the future," Doyle said.

"When it comes to doing deep retrofits on existing buildings, buildings that were maybe designed not with energy efficiency in mind, you really are at the mercy of what you can do in those facilities."

'Lead by example'

The chair of the city's environment and sustainability committee said the energy performance study has been a helpful step forward.

"We're on the right track in terms of our goals and aspirations," said Coun. Mitchell Tweel.

"We're taking climate change very very seriously, and we're trying to practise what we preach by doing the retrofits for our city buildings. We're trying to lead by example."

Tweel said a third-party service provider will also be tracking savings to the city from the energy upgrades.

He said the expected annual savings between city facilities, the Bell Aliant Centre and Eastlink Centre are expected to be around $325,000 annually.

"I believe our residents want to have that information as well, to be able to demonstrate effectively and efficiently that this program is working," Tweel said. 

Tweel also gave the example of the Simmons replacement arena and pool as an opportunity to start with an energy-efficient building, rather than trying to achieve one retroactively. 

"It's not looking to do a retrofit, or doing some renovations to a building that could be 25, 35 years old," Tweel said. 

"We're starting at ground zero, and I think that's fantastic, and what a great opportunity."

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