Facilities Management

Siebens Drake Research Institute (SDRI) is the latest building on campus to be retrofitted as part of Western’s Deep Energy Retrofit Program (DERP), changes that will slash the building’s electricity usage and carbon emissions. With sustainability as a key pillar in its strategic plan, Towards Western 150, DERP is part of the university’s overall commitment to become a low-carbon campus, with a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 (relative to 2005 levels) and achieve net-zero emissions for campus operations by 2050, or sooner. The program was created to renovate older buildings on campus to improve their energy efficiency and reduce emissions, and to connect decentralized cooling infrastructure with Western’s energy loop, which redistributes heat from buildings with excess heat to buildings that require heat. It also provides the opportunity to replace outdated equipment and systems. “Most of Western’s greenhouse gas emissions come from heating spaces or heating water, because we use mostly natural gas and some diesel,” said Joan Ang, manager of energy and carbon for Western’s Office of Sustainability. “The premise of the deep energy retrofit work is to find ways to not ‘waste’ the heat that we’re removing from spaces because if we can reduce the amount of heating we need, then we can significantly reduce the amount of greenhouse gases produced.” Ang said a 2021 feasibility study determined the SDRI retrofit is expected to reduce electricity consumption by 20 per cent and steam consumption by 75 per cent. Utility costs are expected to drop approximately 40 per cent.  

Updating chilling system, joining Western’s energy loop

The retrofit involved removing two older chillers used for cooling SDRI and replacing them with one large chiller and one smaller heat recovery chiller, which simultaneously provides heating and cooling to the building. The heat is redistributed through an energy loop, which shares the excess heat with other campus buildings. “When we’re cooling a building, we take heat from where we don’t want it and historically, we’ve put that heat outside,” Ang said.

“Now, instead of wasting that heat, we’re turning it into hot water or redirecting it to spaces that need heating. The energy loop moves heat from the places we don’t need it to places where we do. The more buildings we connect, the better our ability to move that heat around.”-Joan Ang, manager of energy and carbon, Western Sustainability

The retrofit also connected SDRI to Western’s district chilling cool network. “Prior to this project, if there was a problem with one chiller in the building, there was no way to provide additional cooling. If something went wrong with one chiller, we’d only be able to provide 50 per cent of the cooling. By connecting to the central network, we now have a backup cooling source,” Ang said.

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The Western Student Recreation Centre, the Spencer Engineering Building and the Claudette MacKay Lassonde Pavilion have also been retrofitted through the DERP program. “With each of these deep energy retrofit projects, we are expecting emissions reductions of 75 to 80 per cent (per building),” Ang said. “For every building we tackle, the closer we get to reaching our targets.”