A three-year-long waited project on the Williams Lake City Council was closed in last night’s meeting.
City Council approved a motion to award a contract to install the Cariboo Memorial Rec Complex (CMRC)’s new energy recovery system for $1,242,289.65.
The new energy recovery system will increase overall energy efficiency and will greatly reduce the CMRC’s carbon emissions and footprint.
“I’m so in support of this project. It’s a big step forward in Climate Action for our community,” says Councillor Michael Moses. “It’s pretty exciting. I’m involved in a lot of national climate action projects and organizations on behalf of local governments, and this [project] is one I’ll get to brag about in our calls for months to come.”
Several additional upgrades will be installed along with the new system including a new air handling unit, a make-up air unit, a new ammonia plant control system, and a new snow melt pit heat exchanger.
The energy recovery system will consist of a new site-specific heat pump that will boost the low-grade heat from the ammonia plant to a higher temperature, allowing the heat to be directly injected into the facility’s existing pool boiler loop.
The additional heat exchanger will be integrated with the domestic hot water on the arena side preheating the water entering the DHW system.
The application for grant funding was approved in April 2022 and has been on a hiatus as the Council acquired grants to fund the project.
“Three years ago we started this project, and the best part about this [project] is, it’s all grant funded,” Councillor Scott Nelson says. “The Complex is changing dramatically. These are the types of initiatives that I think we need more of, it will have significant benefits in the long term.”
The project was fully funded using the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP), British Columbia’s Clean BC Communities Fund’, Fortis BC Custom Efficiency Program Incentive Funding, and a contingency fund allocated in the CRD Capital Budget.
The motion was passed unanimously, and City Council awarded the contract to install this new energy system to Fraser Valley Refrigeration Ltd. which provided the most cost-effective price for the installation work.
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