Markham had a superb location for !he lab, as well as !he people and resources to supply it. We also knew such a lab would need power. Reliable power. Power to run computers, and to light, heat and cool 600,000 square feet (56,000 m2) of lab space 24 hours a day. Power !hat was beyond !he icy tentacles of any storm. About !he same time our local hydro utility, Markham Hydro, was pondering how Markham might afford its own power generation system after !he Province of Ontario passed Bili 35. That Act opened up !he Ontario electricity market to competition. As a resul!, local power utilities, provided !hey became incorporated, now had the right to enler into a range of business activities !hat were previously closed to !hem. One of these was generating district energy. Happily, Markham Hydro was well placed !o do so. it had run very successfully for years, had no debi and enough money in !he bank for contingencies. Most importantly, its management was both civic-minded and entrepreneurial in spirit. And so we were faced with a welcome convergence of need (storm protection), opportunity (IBM), and abilities (Markham Hydro). Thus was launched Markham District Energy and it proved to be a winning factor in literally landing !he IBM software development centre for Markham. TRIGENERATION SYSTEM DETAILS: Cogeneration- CHP is provided with a reciprocating engine !o produce 3.3 MW of electricity and 85% of !he district heating system's annual thermal energy requirements. The engine is a CAT Btu/hour (10 MW). The district heating system utilizes two 3.5 MW natura! gas fireci water tube boilers to compliment !he CHP heat recovery system to provide hot water at 117°C. The distribution system utilizes European Standards (EN 253) !hin wall steel pipe. District cooling- !he cooling plant has a capacity of 3500 tonnes. The district cooling system utilizes three 700 tonne centrifugal chillers and one 300 tonne single effect hol water absorption ehiller to provide chilled water at 4°C. The distribution system utilizes Schedule 40 yellow jacket pipe. The projeci should resul! in !he following energy and environmental saving: O 50,000 GJ of primary fuel consumption O 10,000 Mg/year of carbon dioxide equivalent [1 10Mg/year of NOx O 60 Mg/year of SO2 But !he feat was not without its challenges. District energy systems, while fairly common in Europe, are pretty much of a known in Canada. Others in Toronto and Vancouver produce heating but nowhere in the country had anyone combined heating with cooling and electrical power. This 'trigeneration' capacity to produce three forms of energy would be unique in the country. To make !hat happen, we sought trigeneration expertise and selected FVB Energy ine. As a partner, IBM brought in its energy experts from the United States. We then had the makings of an engineering, planning and development team. We game FVB overall responsibility for the engineering design of the facility. Their previous experience would District alsa give us the business management consulting !hat was 3616 with a generator and a series of three plate heat exchangers, which transfer approximately 3 MW of heat from !he engine exhaust energy systems, while fairly common in Europe, needed to help draft the contracts and review !he financials. Finally, we would use FVB to are pretty much ofa known in Canada. This 'trigeneration' capacity to produce three forms of energy would be explain clearly to IBM how the trigenerated power, heating and cooling system would work. unique in the country. and jacket cooling system to !he hol water districtheating loop, with another plate heat exchanger !o reject any unused heat to a cooling tower. in addition thermal energy from !he engine is utilized to provide some cooling energy via an absorption ehiller. District heating- the heating plant has a capacity of 34 million 38 ECOGENERATION WORLD in July 1999, IBM brought !he idea- as well as a parcel of land adjacent to what was Markham Hydro property. We had won !he grand prize. IBM's world centre for software development would cali Markham home. But the work had really only begun.
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