ENMAX Centre. (Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Biggest opportunities for energy savings at city facilities identified

Mar 6, 2020 | 2:21 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – An assessment of the City of Lethbridge’s 17 largest facilities has identified opportunities to reduce water and energy use, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and utility costs.

Engineering Planner Sam Conard presented at Monday’s Community Issues Committee meeting on his findings for the following buildings:

(Supplied by City of Lethbridge)

$1.2-million has already been approved for energy retrofits from the city’s Capital Improvement Plan and they are waiting to hear back from the Municipal Climate Change Action Centre (MCCAC) on a $750,000 grant application.

Of the nine areas of renovations he looked into, Conard reports that Building Automation and Controls has the best bang for its buck when it comes to GHG reductions per dollars invested, but it would take over 50 years for it to pay itself off.

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This includes upgrading thermostats or changing building controls for heating or lighting.

Domestic water upgrades, which involves measures such as installing low-flow plumbing fixtures, would take the least amount of time to pay off at five-to-seven years.

Conard told council he wants to focus primarily on the four projects that would have the shortest payback and/or greatest GHG reduction.

1. Building automation and control
2. Lighting replacements
3. Building envelope sealing
4. Domestic water upgrades

Since the bulk of the funding for these initiatives has already been approved, council will not have to make any additional decisions on them.

Conard says the first project that will be done is to install LED lights at the Henderson Ice Arena, which should be the easiest and quickest to do.

While some projects will be subject to getting the grant, the four that were identified should be done at the 17 facilities in the near future.

Lighting replacements will comprise approximately 86 per cent of the retrofit budget at $1.68-million.

Conard estimates that these energy savings projects will result in 4.3 per cent less energy being used, 10 per cent less water, and up to six per cent less GHG emissions. Up to 5.5 per cent less will need to be spent on utilities, or around $200,000 annually.

Now that this facility assessment is done, he hopes to look into other municipally-owned infrastructure.

More details on the facilities assessment can be found online here.

Another report came back to council this week that suggested the City of Lethbridge should set a goal of reducing GHG emissions by 35 per cent over its 2018’s levels. More details here.

(Supplied by City of Lethbridge)

(Supplied by City of Lethbridge)