In an Australian first, the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) has signed an agreement with Brookfield Energy Australia for the supply of cooling thermal energy.
The university will source its energy supply under Broadway from the Central Park Thermal Plant. It will offer significant energy efficiency improvements, reductions in its environmental impact and even greater cost savings.
These are just a few of the benefits for UTS sourcing a proportion of its chilled energy requirements offsite from Brookfield’s Central Energy Plant.
This is the first contract of its kind in which a precinct central plant will provide energy beyond Central Park, becoming a true district system.
Sydney Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, said UTS may be the first of many possible energy recipients in the broader Broadway and Ultimo precinct.
"This could catalyse further development of district energy for the supply of efficient cooling for the broader Brookfield and Ultimo precinct, and around the cities of Australia," she said.
Reflecting on sustainable future-proofing of properties, Brookfield Energy Australia CEO, Richie Sheather, said the more this plant is utilised, greater long-term energy cost efficiencies will be achieved for all users.
"We look forward to working with more properties in the local area to connect to this district system," Sheather said.
"We see district energy as a way of the future and anticipate working on similar initiatives in other parts of Australia."
The Lord Mayor said thousands of apartments in the Central Park development were being supplied with clean energy from Brookfield’s Central Energy Plant, installed as part of an environmental upgrade agreement with the council.
“It’s great news the network is now expanding across the road to UTS, and we hope to see other businesses and building owners in the area take advantage of the environmental efficiencies and cost savings district energy systems can bring,” she said.
“With 80 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in the City of Sydney area coming from buildings, it’s important we keep looking for innovative ways to create sustainable, energy efficient developments.”
The $1.3 billion Campus Masterplan for the UTS will see the development of new buildings and facilities that require further investment in onsite infrastructure which includes increases in chilling infrastructure to meet increasing air conditioning demand.
Rather than investing in new chilling infrastructure that would require utilising significant space and a high capital investment, UTS has taken the innovative approach to source its cooling energy from a recently developed precinct cooling plant located across the Broadway strip and accessed by thermal delivery pipes that have been bored underneath busy Broadway.
UTS deputy vice chancellor, Patrick Woods said UTS is committed to working on new business models that will result in sustainable practices that have a positive effect on the precinct and the environment.
"We are constantly looking at ways we can reduce waste and our environmental footprint and the District Cooling project is just one example of our commitment in this area." he said.
UTS green infrastructure project manager, Jonathan Prendergast said investment in new chilling infrastructure can be capital and space intensive, requiring new chilling plant, pumps, connecting pipework, cooling towers and electrical infrastructure.
"By procuring a portion of UTS’s cooling from an offsite supplier, UTS can invest in its core business and free up space for teaching, offices and a more active roof space without cooling towers," he said.
“UTS already operate a large central plant that supplies heating and cooling to eight UTS campus buildings.
"Offsite supply of chilling energy from Brookfield provides greater diversity of supply and redundancy for cooling the Broadway campus, reducing the risk of failure and outages."
This initiative is made even more feasible as it takes advantage of the peak and off peak demands of the plant’s current customer, Central Park.
Brookfield’s Central Energy Plant currently provides chilled energy to the Central Park apartments whose main peak demand is typically in the evenings and on weekends when its residents are more likely to be home.
Conversely, UTS’s peak demands are weekdays and during the hot afternoons in semesters, such as February and November.
Heating, cooling and ventilation accounts for approximately 62 per cent of UTS’s total electricity usage. The partnership with Brookfield Energy Australia will see UTS’s greenhouse gas emissions reduced by approximately 2.2 per cent or 1,111 tonnes C02-e per annum.
District energy systems are widely used internationally, particularly in North America and Europe.
The cooling contract will see the purchase of chilling energy requirements for a 15-year period and is due to be implemented in 2018.