Page 8 - Markham District Energy Year in Review 2014

Strengthening Our Energy Resiliency:
District energy systems utilizing combined heat and power (CHP) technology provide increased energy resiliency to municipalities. CHP strategies ensure critical power and heat is available during prolonged outages of the electricity grid. MDE has the ability to maintain power and heat to selected buildings such as Markham Stouffville Hospital and other centres of safety including high schools and community centres. MDE added 7 MW of CHP capacity in 2014 as a result of securing two contracts with the provincial agency, the Independent Electricity System Operator, bringing its total CHP capacity to 15.5 MW. This local generation capability is sufficient to power over 15,000 Markham homes.
Reducing Emissions:
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) recently released a report titled “District Energy in Cities: Unlocking the full potential of energy efficiency and renewable energy.” One primary conclusion in the Report stated that “transitioning cities to modern district energy systems could reduce primary energy consumption by 50% by 2050.”
Reducing energy consumption directly results in lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. MDE’s district energy system design and technology will ensure it will achieve this UNEP stated target.