For professional engineers in private practice
MAY 2011
FALSE CREEK RENEWABLE ENERGY CENTRE GEO-EXCHANGE SYSTEMS TECHNO SOLUTION OR FAD? WIND POWER HITS OPPOSITION
Renewable
ENERGY
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contents
May 2011 Volume 52, No. 3
Cover: False Creek Energy Centre, Vancouver. Photo courtesy Ausenco Sandwell. See story page 20.
features Green Buildings Earth Rangers Revisited. Massive ventilation tubes at a visitors centre in Woodbridge, Ontario have been combined with a geo-exchange system — achieving remarkable results. By Bronwen Parsons
14
District Energy Tapping into Sewage. Vancouver’s False Creek Energy Centre is capturing the warmth of this odiferous resource. Ausenco Sandwell & FVB Energy Earth Rangers Revisited. See story page 14.
20
Geo-Exchange Techno-Solution or Fad? Whether geo-exchange systems make environmental and economic sense depends on many different factors.
departments
By Geoff McDonell, P.Eng., Cobalt Engineering
Comment
4
Up Front
6
ACEC Review
9
22
Making Sense of Geo-Exchange. An engineer uses scenarios to demonstrate situations where GSHP systems make sense. By Laurier Nichols, ing., Dessau
26
Business
36
Wind Power
Products
40
Wind Worries. Citizens groups say wind turbines are
Advertiser Index
41
a health problem. Wind proponents disagree.
The Human Edge
42
By John G. Smith
29
Project Delivery Next issue: building an interchange on the fast-track in Calgary; stormwater control in Ottawa; a reservoir expansion in Toronto.
School Design in the P3 Era. In order to save costs and time Alberta has been building schools using a standardized approach. By Nordahl Flakstad
31 May 2011
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engineer FOR PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS IN PRIVATE PRACTICE
comment
CANADIAN
C O N S U LT I N G
Editor
Bronwen Parsons E-mail: bparsons@ccemag.com (416) 510-5119 Senior Publisher
Taking baby steps in the sun
Maureen Levy E-mail: mlevy@ccemag.com (416) 510-5111 Art Director
Ellie Robinson
T
he book was hailed as a “tour de force” by the likes of the Economist and Guardian when it came out in 2009. I have only just managed to read David JC MacKay’s Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air (MIT Press), but I recommend it to anyone who has the faintest interest in renewable energies and our global future. The Cambridge University professor has managed to synthesize an enormous amount of information to try to figure out whether it is possible for us to kick the carbon habit and rely on renewables. The book is amusing, cheerful and highly readable. The man is a mine of knowledge -- and he can write. At the same time his proposals are careful and detailed, and he ends with a whole section of technical chapters crammed with more calculations for the comfort of engineers. The 370-page volume can be downloaded for free at www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/withouthotair, though the actual book with its many photographs and drawings, is surely more of a pleasure to read. MacKay is focused on the U.K. and some of his solutions are familiar and domestic: turning down the thermostat, a tight building envelope — and also heat pumps. But MacKay is not one to shy away from the big picture. Perhaps the most surprising (whackiest?) idea he supports is to have vast solar energy parks in hot desert countries like Libya (not such a good idea right now). These parks might cover thousands of square kilometres and consist not of photovoltaic panels, but of “concentrated solar,” which he describes as combinations of moving mirrors, molten salt, steam and heat engines to generate electricity. In Canada the solar industry is just starting to take baby steps. Ontario is walking fastest, thanks to the feed-in-tariff program introduced two years ago. According to a report by the U.S. Interstate Renewable Energy Council, by 2009 Ontario was already the third largest market for solar PV installations in North America, ranking only behind New Jersey and California. Projections for Ontario this year are to have 455 MW installed, with plans for 2700 MW by 2015. Ontario’s FIT program has drawn scores of manufacturers, contractors, developers and other entrepreneurs into the industry, anxious to capitalize on the program. But what has it meant for consulting engineers? Surprisingly, the list of members in CANSia, the Canadian Solar Industries Association based in Ottawa, includes only a handful of the larger consulting engineering companies. Hatch is one of the firms most deeply committed to solar. So far they have been doing a lot of work for projects in the planning stages, doing feasibility studies for owners and developers, due diligence on behalf of project financiers, energy production modelling and the like. If we really want to stop global warming — and MacKay very matter-offactly shows why we must — then the energy industry should devote more attention to that big light in the sky. As the Hatch website points out, the potential is enormous: “Our planet receives more energy from the sun in an hour than is used in the entire world in one year.” Bronwen Parsons
Contributing Editor
Rosalind Cairncross, P.Eng. Advertising Sales Manager
Vince Naccarato E-mail: vnaccarato@ccemag.com (416) 510-5118
T
Editorial Advisors
Bruce Bodden, P.Eng., Gerald Epp, P.Eng., Chris Newcomb, P.Eng., Laurier Nichols, ing., Lee Norton, P.Eng., Jonathan Rubes, P.Eng., Paul Ruffell, P.Eng., Andrew Steeves, P.Eng., Ron Wilson, P.Eng.
G
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Circulation
Beata Olechnowicz (416) 442-5600 x3543 bolechnowicz@bizinfogroup.ca
F b m s 4 im lif
Production Co-ordinator
Karen Samuels (416) 510-5190 Vice President, Publishing Business Information Group (BIG)
Alex Papanou
President, Business Information Group (BIG)
Bruce Creighton Head Office
12 Concorde Place, Suite 800 Toronto, ON M3C 4J2 Tel: (416) 442-5600 Fax: (416) 510-5134 CANADIAN CONSULTING ENGINEER is published by BIG Magazines LP, a division of Glacier BIG Holdings Company Ltd. EDITORIAL PURPOSE: Canadian Consulting Engineer magazine covers innovative engineering projects, news and business information for professional engineers engaged in private consulting practice. The editors assume no liability for the accuracy of the text or its fitness for any particular purpose. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Canada, 1 year $59.95; 2 years $89.95 + taxes Single copy $7.00 Cdn. + taxes. (HST 809751274-RT0001). United States U.S. $59.95. Foreign U.S. $83.95. PRINTED IN CANADA. Title registered at Trademarks Office, Ottawa. Copyright 1964. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced either in part or in full without the consent of the copyright owner(s). ISSN: 0008-3267 (print), ISSN: 1923-3337 (digital) POSTAL INFORMATION: Publications Mail Agreement No. 40069240. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to Circulation Dept., Canadian Consulting Engineer, 12 Concorde Place, Suite 800, Toronto, ON M3C 4J2.
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p03-05 CCE MayJune11 ContComment.indd 5
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up front
BUILDINGS
Water efficiency by Code Canada’s National Building Code and National Plumbing Code may include a water use efficiency objective in the future. The NRC Canadian Commission on Buildings and Fire Codes has set up a steering committee and is working with a consultant on policies and directives. A decision on whether to proceed is expected to be made by this summer. East Toba and Montrose Hydroelectric Project, Powell River, B.C.
Sanitation technologies needed for disasters Americana 2011 was held in Montreal on March 22-24 at the Palais des Congrès. Consulting engineering firms were well represented, with Golder and AMEC acting as key sponsors. Firms such as Genivar, Dillon, BPR and TetraTech also had people making presentations. One session that stood out was “Water Supply and Sanitation in Natural and Manmade Disasters.” With the triple disaster in Japan under way and the Haiti earthquake and Asian tsunami still being dealt with, questions about providing water and wastewater infrastructure to people suffering under such dire circumstances struck a chord. Presenter Caetano Dorea, P.Eng., a young academic from Laval University who has worked for Oxfam and spent time in Aceh after the 2009 tsunami, said that analyses show that in most disasters the priority should be to deliver a larger quantity of “good” quality water, rather than labouring to provide a smaller stream of “excellent” quality. Units such as reverse osmosis or ozone chambers therefore aren’t the best immediate answer: “If it looks complicated, it probably is complicat-
ed, and it will be expensive,” he said. While there are many solutions for providing clean drinking water in emergencies, efforts to provide technologies for clean sanitation are “lagging far behind,” said Dorea. “We’re looking for the holy grail in terms of sanitation technology.” AWARDS
Knight Piesold wins top CEBC award Consulting Engineers of B.C. handed out its 2011 Awards for Engineering Excellence at the new Vancouver Convention Centre on March 5. Jack Lee, P.Eng., president of the association, pointed out that B.C.’s engineering sector contributes $2 billion contribution to the economy. The Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Engineering Excellence went to the East Toba and Montrose Hydroelectric Project in Powell River, B.C. by Knight Piésold (natural resources, energy & industry category). Awards of excellence went to the Arena Stage Performing Arts Centre, Washington, DC by Fast + Epp Structural Engineers (buildings); DuncanBateson Pump Station, Kent, by Opus DaytonKnight (municipal). Sheikh
CULTURE
History a click away Parks Canada has launched a new website, the Canadian Register of Historic Places. The website includes engineering works and structures, as well as buildings, and archaeological sites. It is believed there are 17,000 eligible designated sites in Canada that could be included. See www.historicplaces.ca
he cyc neighb pump Trane S reduct project with th about t
ENERGY
FIT for geo-exchange? In the U.K., the government has announced the details of a feedin-tariff program for a variety of renewable energies, including ground and water source heat pumps. The Canadian GeoExchange Coalition says that it has been raising the possibility of a feed-in-tariff for geoexchange systems with provincial ministries across Canada.
©Trane 2011
WATER & WASTEWATER
continued on page 8 6
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he sewage heat pump (pictured above) is the first of its kind in North America and recovers heat energy from raw sewage through a refrigeration cycle. The heat pump unit delivers 3 MW of heat energy at 80ËšC to water circulating through underground piping in the Vancouver False Creek neighborhood, heating the Olympic Village and surrounding residential neighborhood. The energy that is drawn out of the sewage by the heat pump is waste energy that would otherwise be lost in the sewage treatment process. Completely custom designed for the City of Vancouver, the Trane Sewage Heat Pump turns 1 MW of electrical energy that drives refrigeration compressors into 3 MW of thermal heat energy, for a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gases, and tremendous savings in natural gas consumption. Trane is extremely proud of the ground breaking nature of the project and is committed to bringing innovative green solutions to district energy and neighborhood utility systems. Trane is a long term partner with the City of Vancouver in the project with a 10 year maintenance and service support program as part of the project scope. For more information about the sewage heat pump technology, contact Cameron Lowry, Director, Industrial Market, Trane @ 604.473.5600 or CELowry@trane.com.
We Make Your Buildings
Work Better
Trane Custom Solutions
ŠTrane 2011
District Energy Systems.
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up front
continued from page 6
Zayed Bridge, Abu Dhabi City, UAE by Buckland & Taylor Ltd. (transportation); and Managing Rising Flood Waters in Prince George, B.C. by Northwest Hydraulic Consultants (soft engineering). Neil Cumming, P.Eng. of Levelton Consultants in Richmond won the Meritorious Achievement Award. The Young Consulting Engineer Award went to Joel McAllister, P.Eng. of Opus Dayton-Knight in Abbotsford. EMPLOYMENT
Civil engineers supply to fall Engineers Canada released a labour market study on April 11. Chantal Guay, P.Eng., chief executive officer of the Ottawa-based organization, said that Engineering Labour Market Conditions 20092018 will benefit many groups, including students and human resources departments, “as it identifies which disciplines and areas of the country will need engineers in the next seven years.” According to the news release, the study results suggest that “while levels of immigration and Canadian graduation established in 2008-2009 are likely sufficient to balance markets across the coming decade, issues such as replacement demands related to retirements in many occupations will add to current challenges in recruiting experienced engineers.” The report found that on balance the supply of civil engineers wi Richard Lay ll fall from now until 2018, a factor which is related to the aging workforce and “relatively low registrations in post secondary programs compared to other disciplines.” It noted that the age profile of civil engineers is older than the average for all engineers. The report, prepared in association with Randstad Engineering, can be downloaded free at www.engineerscanada.ca COMPANIES
From one man to 24,000 SNC-Lavalin launched its 100th birthday celebrations in April. At a media conference on April 11, president and CEO Pierre Duhaime explained how 8
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STRUCTURES
Pierre Duhaime announcing SNC-Lavalin’s centennial celebrations.
the company had started off in 1911 as a one-man, one-client office in nearby Old Montreal. Now the company has grown to be “one of the world’s largest engineering/construction firms” with 24,000 employees in Canada and 35 other countries around the world. It currently has “thousands of projects in 100 countries,” and earned revenues of $6.3 billion last year. A “travelling hard hat” is crisscrossing the globe to different offices for “photo-ops.” The company is also publishing a centennial history book. But the major initiative is “100 Acts of WE CARE.” With this program, the company will recognize 100 examples of employees volunteering their time to any of a variety of causes. COMPANIES
Golder buys Marston Golder Associates has acquired the Marston Group of Companies, a company of 80 employees that specializes in services for the mining sector. Staff will join the existing Golder offices in Denver and Calgary, while keeping U.S. offices in St. Louis, San Antonio and one in Australia. COMPANIES
Trow changes its name Trow Global of Brampton, Ontario has renamed itself exp Global inc. The name change affects 25 companies Trow recently acquired, including ADI of New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador Consulting Engineers, and Teknika HBA and LBCD of Quebec. Companies in Ontario that are affected include Banerjee & Associates and Carruthers & Wallace.
Size Matters to Some The number of buildings 200 metres or more in height around the world has risen from 286 to 602 in the last decade. Currently buildings over 200 metres exist in 32 countries across the world, including the UAE which has 44 such buildings. The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) located at IIT in Chicago keeps careful tabs on the world of rising structures.
Wenzhou Trade Center, China, 321 metres.
The council’s latest analysis shows that of the 32 countries with tall buildings, Austria’s tallest ten are the shortest, with an average height of only 128 meters. China’s tallest ten, with an average height of 421 meters, are the tallest, followed by the UAE (376 metres) and the USA (357 metres). The council also notes that these figures do not include a number of buildings that are projected to be completed in 2011, such as the Wenzhou Trade Center in China.
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ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTING ENGINEERING COMPANIES | REVIEW
CHAIR’S MESSAGE
Chair Shares ACEC Successes
A
s I look back over the past year as Chair of ACEC, I find that the continued success of our industry is remarkable in many respects. Not only has our membership steadily grown through the economic turndown, it has exceeded our most optimistic projections. This was certainly not the case during the recession of the 1990s. The significant difference this time is that governments at all levels have recognized that well considered investments in our economic, societal and environmental infrastructure are the key to a successful economy. And our industry and the expertise of our member firms are essential to ensuring that such investments are made prudently, effectively and efficiently. This is a message that ACEC and the 12 provincial and territorial consulting engineering associations across Canada have been taking to government. In recent years, our profession, our industry and our association have become much more effective in engaging
government and opinion leaders. We have evolved and are becoming more comfortable in extolling both the importance and value of our expertise and services to Canadian society. ACEC exists to help its member firms be more successful — and that is what we have been doing. When we succeed, our clients also succeed — both in the public and private sectors. And the ultimate beneficiary of our services is Canada — its people and its standard of living. This is why we need to continue to be unapologetic in our advocacy and to continue our engagement with leaders in government and business. Our strategic priorities have been and continue to be to build the profile of consulting engineers and to advocate for a better business and regulatory climate for the consulting engineering sector. I am proud of the strides we have made over the past year and am excited as we continue to set ambitious goals for ourselves in the future. For highlights of ACEC’s recent and ongoing activities please visit: http://www.acec.ca/acec/National_Voice.pdf WILFRID MORIN, ING., CHAIR ACEC BOARD OF DIRECTORS
MESSAGE DU PRÉSIDENT DU CONSEIL
Un mot du Président du conseil sur le succès de l’AFIC
E
n dressant le bilan de cette dernière année à titre de président de l’AFIC, je constate que le succès continu de notre industrie est remarquable à plusieurs égards. Notre taux d’adhésion s’est non seulement accru de façon continue malgré le ralentissement de l’économie, mais il a également excédé nos prévisions les plus optimistes. Ce qui n’était vraisemblablement pas le cas durant la récession des années 1990. Cette différence appréciable est attribuable au fait que, cette fois, tous les paliers de gouvernement reconnaissent que les investissements bien réfléchis dans les infrastructures économiques, sociétales et environnementales constituent la clé de la réussite économique. À plus forte raison, notre industrie et le savoir-faire de nos firmes membres, jouent un rôle primordial dans le processus de réflexion en s’assurant que ces investissements soient faits en toute prudence, efficience et efficacité. Voilà le message que livrent l’AFIC et les 12 associations provinciales et territoriales d’ingénieursconseils du Canada au gouvernement canadien. Ces dernières années, notre profession, notre industrie et notre association ont mieux réussi à susciter l’intérêt du gouvernement et des leaders d’opinion. Nous avons fait des
progrès et devenons plus habiles à faire valoir l’importance et la valeur de notre savoir-faire et de nos services auprès de la société canadienne. La raison d’être de l’AFIC est d’aider ses firmes membres à mieux réussir – c’est ce que nous avons toujours fait. Lorsque nous réussissons, nos clients aussi réussissent – tant dans le secteur public que privé. Ultimement, c’est le Canada tout entier qui profite de nos services en améliorant le niveau de vie de tous les Canadiennes et Canadiens. Pour cette raison, nous devons continuer à faire entendre notre voix haut et fort et continuer à faire connaître notre message aux chefs de gouvernement et d’entreprise. Nos priorités stratégiques ont toujours été d’établir le profil des ingénieurs-conseils et de prôner un meilleur contexte d’affaires et de réglementation pour le secteur de génieconseil. Je suis fier des progrès que nous avons accomplis au cours de l’année passée et je suis excité en pensant aux objectifs ambitieux que nous nous fixons pour les années à venir. Pour connaître les faits saillants des activités récentes et continues de l’AFIC, veuillez consulter : http://www.acec.ca/acec/Voix_nationale.pdf WILFRID MORIN, ING., PRÉSIDENT CONSEIL D’ADMINISTRATION DE L’AFIC
May 2011
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ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTING ENGINEERING COMPANIES | REVIEW
Design Services Will Be Another Sector to Ride the Commodities Wave By Alex Carrick, Senior Economist, Reed Construction Data One way to gain an understanding of how the building design profession is faring in Canada is to examine its employment levels. A U.S.-Canada comparison adds to the insight. At their worst points during the recent recession, both countries suffered similar declines in year-over-year design-services employment (nearly -10.0%) in the second half of 2009. In the U.S., the deceleration in employment growth began in mid-2006. The speculative bubble in U.S. home prices began to leak air in early 2006. The overall drop in U.S. home starts since January 2006 has been 80%. The recession in Canada took hold in October 2008 after Lehman Brothers fell into bankruptcy south of the border and stock markets, including the TSX, collapsed. Private sector firms retreated into full hunker-down mode, cutting jobs and shelving investment plans. In response, the Bank of Canada lowered interest rates. Relatively quickly, the existing homes resale market pulled out of its steep slide and new home starts improved significantly, with a six-month lag. Even more important for the building design professions, Ottawa brought down an innovative and forward-thinking infrastructure stimulus package. The provinces and municipalities not only jumped at the chance to be partners, but in many cases launched their own spending initiatives. How important has that been for
the industry? CanaData compiles a monthly list of the Top Ten construction projects. From April 2009 through September 2010, 160 of the 180 largest projects were either institutional or engineering in nature. That’s unprecedented. Those categories are traditionally financed by the public sector. Even commercial projects on the list were often government-financed, such as community recreation complexes or city hall alterations. Washington also brought down a stimulus spending program but it wasn’t as effective. Much of the money funneled to the state level was used to pay for general expenses. Some U.S. states continue to face huge funding shortfalls. A 12.3% decline in U.S. designservices actual employment occurred between April 2008 and November 2010. In Canada, the collapse wasn’t quite as bad or as long, lasting from October 2008 to March 2010. More interesting, from January 2000 to April 2008, overall employment in U.S. design services rose 21.3%. In Canada, the comparable figure was a much higher 49.0%. Employment by Canadian design services
firms increased at more than double the rate of the U.S. The explanation for this discrepancy lies in both the nature of the construction markets in the two countries and what has been driving demand. The residential sector has held up much stronger in Canada. But also, there is an even more important factor driving demand and that is com-
modities. The emergence onto the world stage of China, Southeast Asia, Brazil, India and several other nations has greatly expanded international raw materials markets. An example was global oil reaching a record high $147 USD per barrel in July 2008. In much of the 2000s, Canada experienced explosive growth in mega construction projects related to commodities (e.g. Alberta Oil Sands, Atlantic offshore work as well as potash, uranium and diamond mining projects) and electric power generation. During the financial crisis, the world saw some fall-back in commodities demand and pricing. However, with ongoing strength in China and a U.S. economy finally coming out of its shell, the climb in commodity prices is back in full swing. Furthermore, the popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa nations are adding a “risk” premium to the price of oil. Reed Construction Data – CanaData
ACEC Member Organizations: Consulting Engineers of British Columbia, Consulting Engineers of Yukon, Consulting Engineers of Alberta, Consulting Engineers of Northwest Territories, Consulting Engineers of Saskatchewan, Association of Consulting Engineering Companies – Manitoba, Consulting Engineers of Ontario, Association des Ingénieurs-conseils du Québec, Association of Consulting Engineering Companies – New Brunswick, Consulting Engineers of Nova Scotia, Consulting Engineers of Prince Edward Island, Consulting Engineers of Newfoundland and Labrador. 10
Canadian Consulting Engineer
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ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTING ENGINEERING COMPANIES | REVIEW
is expecting the value of total new construction in Canada to increase 25% between 2011 and 2014, from $240 billion to just over $300 billion. Both of those figures are in current dollars. The average annual increase in “real” (i.e. inflation-adjusted) residential construction spending over the next three years will be +2.0%. The non-residential building increase will be +3.0%. And thanks to
the commodity effect, the average annual growth rate for engineering construction will be +4.0% to +4.5%. The latter is close to full capacity for the sector given material and manpower limitations. A degree of uncertainty remains for the world economy based on continuing debt problems in Europe, civil unrest and military action in several Arab nations, Chinese moves to re-
strain inflation and the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. But with Ottawa’s stimulus set to expire in October, the private sector is increasingly stepping forward with investment plans. Higher commodity prices are a particular incentive for owners in the natural resources sector to undertake projects. The design professions will be one of the chief beneficiaries.
Niche Sectors, Emerging Markets
Opportunities for Canadian CE Businesses Abroad The following article is provided by Export Development Canada, a corporate partner of ACEC. Canadian infrastructure companies have enjoyed fair success in some of the more remote parts of the world and Canadian expertise could play well in certain niche markets such as medical and athletic facilities. Françoise Faverjon-Fortin, vicepresident of infrastructure and environment with Export Development Canada (EDC), travelled with her team to the Middle East in December to showcase Canadian construction and engineering companies. While the visit explored opportunities in the power and water sectors, they found that there was as much interest about Canadian capability in the health and sports infrastructure sectors. And it’s not just that part of the world. Much of the infrastructure demand for sporting facilities is coming from nations such as Brazil, that are hosting premier sporting events such as FIFA and the Olympic Games. Brazil plans more than $1 trillion in construction projects, to bring its airports, roads and other infrastructure up to date in preparation for these events, opening up huge opportunities for foreign investors. Furthermore, Brazilian authorities
expect that local suppliers will be unable to meet developers’ needs. And Canadian construction and engineering firms are no strangers to this field, having worked on the Vancouver and Calgary Olympic winter games and various other sporting major events. But Brazil’s infrastructure needs go beyond these large sporting venues and Canadian companies could capitalize on these needs in the coming years. “Canada has a great reputation abroad with respect to its infrastructure capability,” says Ms. Faverjon-Fortin. “We have a great deal of publicprivate collaboration here in Canada. When Canadian firms are successful at home, it’s easier to sell that capability and expertise abroad.” Brazil is a priority market for EDC
where it has staff in both Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo, supported by a team in Ottawa. That said, Brazil is not without its challenges, including expensive tax regimes and strong local and foreign competition. To succeed in Brazil, Canadian companies must develop a local presence, commit over the long term and adapt to the rigorous market requirements. “Take a long-term view of the market,” advises Ms. Faverjon-Fortin. “Develop a local presence for visibility with key clients and after-sales service, invest in local partnerships and consider joint ventures and strategic alliances. And get good legal and accounting advice.” EDC will be participating in an infrastructure trade mission to Brazil this June.
ABOUT ACEC The Association of Consulting Engineering Companies Canada (ACEC) is a business association representing nearly 500 consulting engineering companies across Canada. ACEC is made up of 12 provincial and territorial organizations. For more information on ACEC, visit www.acec.ca.
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Ca
ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTING ENGINEERING COMPANIES | REVIEW
ACEC Summit & Annual Convention Register today! Montebello, Québec June 23-25, 2011 This year’s Summit will be held in the luxurious, rugged Chateau Montebello famed for its stunning red cedar log Chateau and rustic elegant surroundings.
Summit Theme Building Strong Organizations: Understand. Relate. Communicate. With the threat of decreased business opportunities as a result of the recession, firms have been forced to fine-tune, re-align, and restructure operations. Consequently, leaner, stronger organizations have emerged.
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Visit www.acec.ca for more details! Don’t Miss Special Keynote Speaker – Dr. Sean Richardson!
son Richard Dr. Sean
ACEC is pleased to welcome Dr. Sean Richardson to this year’s Summit as its keynote speaker. A former elite athlete and psychologist, Dr. Richardson is a high performance coach and mentor with a proven track record in helping businesses understand the psychological barriers to success. Don’t miss his expert advice! For more information on Dr. Sean Richardson and the entire Business Program, visit www.acec.ca today.
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Canadian_Exec_hi_resv3.pdf
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MASSIVE CONCRETE VENTILATION TUBES HAVE PRODUCED REMARKABLE RESULTS AT A VISITORS CENTRE IN WOODBRIDGE, ONTARIO, AND RECENTLY NEW UPGRADES TO THE HVAC SYSTEM HAVE BEEN MADE.
Earth Rangers
Above: A pavilion in the parking lot displays the headers for the ground source heat pump system. Left: Ventilation “earth tubes” emerge in a huge plenum in the basement. The concrete tubes are 20 metres long.
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green buildings
B Y B R O N W E N PA R S O N S
EARTH RANGERS
REVISITED W
hen the Earth Rangers Centre was built in 2004 it caused quite a stir. Photographs of the massive concrete ventilation “earth tubes” being installed — each around 20 metres long, 1 metre in diameter, and buried 2 metres below grade — made for impressive media coverage. They are still the largest earth tubes in North America. But how did these ungainly features perform? Their purpose is to moderate the temperature of the ventilation air, and according to the Earth Rangers organization they have more than proved their worth in energy savings. Recently, the 60,000-sq.ft. centre upgraded its building systems and added more features to supplement the energy savings. A ground source heating system, for example, was added below the parking lot. Today the building uses almost no fossil-based energy for heating and cooling, and it generates a third of its electricity on site. Its energy consumption from off-site sources is only 9 ekWh per square foot. The Earth Rangers centre is located within the Kortright Centre for Conservation, in Woodbridge on the northwest outskirts of Toronto. Enermodal Engineering were the mechanical engineers and LEED consultants on the original building systems design; MCW Custom Energy Solutions were the mechanical, electrical and energy design consultants for the recent upgrades. The building was originally designed as a wildlife rehabilitation centre, but today it serves as an education centre to teach children about preserving wildlife and habitat around the world. The long animal wing and aviary are now occupied by “animal ambassadors,” which include large raptors such as bald eagles, and (somewhat out of the Canadian context) lemurs from Madagascar. The building is an office for 40 Earth Rangers staff
and 20 staff from the sustainable technology evaluation program and education group of the Toronto Region Conservation Authority.
Earth tubes and +20 C Brett Sverkas has been in charge of operating the building for the last year ever since the GSHP system was installed. He was astonished to find out how effective the earth tubes were at tempering the ventilation air. As part of the 2010 upgrades, a new building automation system was added and Sverkas couldn’t believe the readings it was showing. He explains: “During the commissioning of our ventilation and building automation system (BAS) upgrades, myself and James Raven (project manager for MCW) needed to trend the air flow from intake to discharge. After observing the temperatures via the BAS we were extremely puzzled by some of the values. The outside air temperature was -17°C, the temperature at the exiting side of the earth tubes was +2°C, and the discharge side of the enthalpy wheel was +20°C. At this point we thought that we had a calibration issue with our temperature sensors, so we grabbed the trusty sling psychrometer and observed nearly identical readings to the BAS. That means that we were completely tempering our fresh ventilation air to the desired set point without having to add a mechanical heat source. Needless to say we were both impressed.” Sverkas estimates that on a day when the outdoor air temperature is -10°C, the tubes conservatively achieve a 10-15 C degree rise in the incoming air. “If the ventilation system is delivering 2500 L/sec, the earth tubes provide approximately 100,000+ btu in an hour,” he says. The tubes draw 100% fresh air from intakes alongside a detached garage. The intakes are fitted with a standard bird screen, a filter cloth and Merv 8-pleated filters. The continued on page 16 May 2011
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CCE
fluid coming from the ground is not cold enough to effectively dehumidify the air on hot humid days. When conditions allow, therefore, Sverkas starts the chiller and runs an overnight “batch scrub." This procedure allows them to “suck the moisture from the air while reducing the need for reheat,” he explains. Since the scrub occurs during unoccupied times, the system can run at 100% recirculating air, which achieves the dehumifying goal quickly.
Above: One of six photovoltaic arrays added recently in the parking lot. The centre’s total PV system capacity is 86 kW.
incoming air passes through an enthalpy wheel and air handling unit, and then is distributed throughout the building through a displacement ventilation strategy, i.e. the air is fed at low level, cooler than the space temperature, and exhausted at high level from the spaces. Boiler sits idle now The geothermal field consists of 44 vertical loops buried 120 to 140 metres below the parking lot. This ground source heat pump (GSHP) feeds a radiant heating and cooling system. Heat is delivered or removed via an ethylene-glycol mixture through 22 kilometres of pipe embedded in the concrete floors and ceilings. Since the GSHP was added, the system has displaced almost 150,000 ekWh of gas consumption annually. A high-efficiency gas condensing boiler sits idle for most of the time, gathering dust in the basement. The only time the boiler was used last year was for testing to ensure it was ready if needed. In summer, Sverkas explains, the ground loop field provides more than enough cooling for occupant comfort without running the heat pump. But the temperature of the
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Solar PV generates revenue Another recent addition is six large photovoltaic arrays, distributed on stands around the parking lot. Each array has 54 x 175W panels, each with its own micro-inverter. The arrays (approximately 4 x 6 metres in area) have a dual axis tracking system that allows them to follow the sun from east to west during the day. (The tracking gear was damaged by freezing this winter and the panels were stuck flat during our visit in early April.) Together with an original 28 kW PV array on the aviary building, the centre’s PV capacity is now 86 kW. A large display monitor in the building lobby shows the performance in real time. Even on an overcast day, the PV system is generating up to 20 kW. John Pepelnak, sustainability manager of the centre, says the panels will generate up to a third of the centre’s electricity consumption. Thanks to Ontario’s feed-in-tariff program, the centre can sell all the energy generated on-site to the Ontario Power Authority at a rate which is higher than the rate the centre pays to buy power back from the utility. Orchestrating solar power with the GSHP Solar thermal collectors were part of the original design and are mounted on the reverse of the roof's north-facing light sheds (dormer windows). The 16 solar collectors heat the domestic water supply, but they sometimes produce surplus energy that can be used to supplement the building heating system. Sverkas explains how this works: a propylene glycol “drainback” tank exchanges absorbed heat between the DHW distribution tank, three preheat tanks and the building heating loop.
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The team was able to make this design change thanks to the new sophisticated metering and controls that allow the building team to intensively monitor how the building behaves, down even to the level of individual pumps. “After studying the performance of the building envelope and the building’s reaction to solar heat gains during the winter months,” says Sverkas, “it has become evident that we should be able to heat the building on sunny days using this system alone, letting the ground source system stand idle. This may seem to be a stretch of the imagination to most engineers, but because of design features such as a radiant concrete structure that is designed to act as a giant thermal battery, the building is able to sustain little space temperature change on average sunny winter days.” The building also has a “forced cross flow” cooling tower. Usually this would be used to remove the chiller reject heat, but since the chiller is hardly used any more, the tower is mainly used for free cooling. Sverkas also says they have the option to use the cooling tower to reject excess heat from the ground around the GSHP field loop if there is a seasonal imbalance in the field temperatures. Wave of the future Within the spacious basement, beside all the gleaming HVAC equipment is a wastewater treatment plant that incor-
porates both aerobic and anaerobic digestion and ultraviolet disinfection. Two transparent pipes show the before and after product — one filled with dark muddy liquid, and the other clear water. The monitors show that the plant has processed 2,800 litres on this day, but it has a total capacity of 12,000 litres. Ultra low-flow toilets and faucets, rainwater harvesting (there is a green roof), and this on-site greywater treatment plant, mean the building consumes up to 75% less potable water than it otherwise would. This is an extraordinary building, one that shows that it is possible to operate a building using virtually no carbon-based fuels and very little energy overall. No wonder the young Sverkas seems to be enjoying himself orchestrating and balancing all the different building systems. With this building he is obviously riding the wave to the future. CCE Owner: Earth Rangers, Woodbridge, Ont. Original mechanical design and LEED consultant: Enermodal (Richard Lay, P.Eng.) Upgrades to mechanical/electrical/energy design: MCW Custom Energy Solutions (Thomas Tisler, P.Eng., James Raven, B.Eng.) Building architect: John Buttner/Bautech, with M Architecture Supplier: Groundheat International (geothermal system installation)
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district energy
Ausenco Sandwell & FVB Energy
Beneath our city streets runs a boundless flow of thermal energy. Vancouver’s False Creek Energy Centre is capitalizing on this odiferous resource.
Tapping into Sewage
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n some ways it seems so obvious. Instead of letting the warmth simply drain away, a new facility in downtown Vancouver is salvaging heat from sewage pipes below the streets and using it to supply heat and domestic hot water to buildings. The False Creek Energy Centre in downtown Vancouver is the first utility in North America to harvest heat from a wastewater system for domestic use. The neighbourhood energy utility (NEU) currently distributes the heat to 12 mid-rise mixed-use buildings in the Southeast False Creek community. It presently supplies about 70% of the thermal energy demand of 1,400 residential units (some of which were originally the 2010 Winter Olympic Village housing).
Ausenco Sandwell
Uncharted territory Since this was a North American “first,” the consulting engineering
companies, FVB Energy and Ausenco Sandwell, together with Chris Baber, project manager for the city of Vancouver, had to steer their way through uncharted engineering territory. One of the first issues was finding a suitable heat pump system and heat exchanger. Ray Tarnai, P.Eng. of Ausenco Sandwell explains: “The exchanger had to achieve a higher heat transfer rate than could be accomplished through a two-stage system. We also had to feed raw sewage directly into the heat pump, which makes it unique.” The team searched worldwide for a supplier and eventually found one in North America that provided performance guarantees and a 10-year maintenance contract. The potential sewage fouling of the heat exchanger meant that solids could clog the equipment, while oils and fats could lead to the growth of
Above: the plant blends into the low-rise neighbourhood of SE False Creek.
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biofilm and compromise its efficiency. To solve those issues the heat exchanger has a 2-mm travelling screen that removes solid particles before the sewage passes through it. To reduce the biofilm build-up the team chose a shell and tube system that can be adapted to include an automated brush cleaning system. A four-way valve allows the operators to periodically reverse the flow of the wastewater to flush it out. After over a year of operation, these tools have proved effective. Another concern was that the local sewage flows in the neighbourhood vary dramatically over the course of a day and night. There needed to be enough wastewater to provide 2.7 MW of energy. To “top up” the supply, a connection was made to the main sewer line serving downtown Vancouver. Automated controls also maintain the flow through the exchanger. After the heat exchanger has done its work, the removed solids are returned to the waste stream by being deposited in the centre of a specially designed self-cleaning trench-type wet well. Pumps are periodically run at high speed to clean the solids and grit from the wet well areas. Better than geothermal The waste stream runs at an average of 20°C which is much warmer than the temperature of the earth, making it more useful as a source of energy than a geothermal field. Tarnai sees no reason why sewage heat recovery should not become widely used. What's needed is “a significant
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district energy
Ausenco Sandwell
Above: the award-winning architecture set against the Cambie Bridge. The exhaust flues have LED lights that change colour as the demand for energy fluctuates.
heat demand, a nearby source of sewage and an acceptable location for the central heat plant,� he says. Originally Vancouver had considered other renewable energy sources for the Southeast False Creek Community, including a geothermal collection field. But the field needed to be extremely large and would have been too costly. There isn’t enough sunlight in Vancouver to produce enough solar thermal energy, and the community had concerns about a biomass energy source. The architecture of the utility building is so attractive it won a Royal
Architectural Institute of Canada award in 2010. The most dramatic feature is the stainless steel exhaust flues that extend 20 metres above grade near the adjacent Cambie Street Bridge. The flues are from the boilers, a generator and an odour control unit. LED lights on the flues change from blue to red as the demand for energy rises. The NEU system took three years to build and cost $30 million. It can be operated by a staff of two. The project has won 2010 awards from Consulting Engineers of B.C. and the Association of Professional Engineers
and Geoscientists of B.C. -- BP
Client: City of Vancouver Neighbourhood Energy Utility Design basis and detailed design of distribution system: FVB Energy (Robert Doyle, P.Eng., John Chin, P.Eng.) Design of central heat plant: Ausenco Sandwell (Ray Tarnai, P.Eng., Joseph Chacko, P.Eng., Minoo Colah, P.Eng., George Szabo, P.Eng.) Mechanical/wastewater: Omni Engineering Architecture: Water Francl Architecture Suppliers: Trane (sewage heat pump); Eaton (medium voltage switchgear, motor control centres)
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geo-exchange
TECHNO SOLUTION OR FAD? Geoff McDonell P.Eng., 2007
BY GEOFF McDONELL, P.ENG. COBALT ENGINEERING
GROUND SOURCE HEAT PUMPS (geo-exchange heat pumps) have their place as an effective heating/cooling plant solution, and are a great application in some parts of the country. But if I was building a house and had to decide whether to put $15,000 into a ground source heat pump or into more insulation, better windows, and a more carefully integrated design, I wouldn’t do the heat pump.
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WHETHER GROUND SOURCE HEAT PUMPS SAVE ENERGY COSTS OR REDUCE CARBON EMISSIONS DEPENDS ON MANY DIFFERENT FACTORS AND CIRCUMSTANCES.
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Opposite page: An example of a slinky coil geoexchange field being placed under the parkade of the City of North Vancouver Library in 2007. The system took advantage of “free excavation” during construction for the underground parkade. Geoexchange piping was placed below the bottom of the lowest parking level, as well as along the side-cuts of the pit. Left: Geo-exchange manifold being installed, North Vancouver Library, August 2007.
Geoff McDonell P.Eng.
• How efficient are the building terminal systems in terms of transferring the geo-exchange plant heating and cooling energy to the occupied space? • How does the current method of building energy modelling create unrealistic expectations compared to the actual reality?
The analogy is the same no matter what size or type of building is involved. The first thing that needs to be done in terms of low energy building design is to design a proper envelope and engage as much passive design as possible before the techno-solutions are applied. Future-proof the building first. After all, the most efficient heating and cooling system is the one that doesn’t have to operate. Geo-exchange heat pumps are a popular HVAC system these days due to the growing number of LEED registered buildings and the “apparent” energy savings the geo-exchange system can provide to get those highly desired LEED energy credits. But while ground source heat pump systems (GSHPs) can show they can provide more heat energy than the electrical energy going into them, there are other matters to consider in order to see the big picture of truly sustainable and environmentally friendly building system designs: • Where is the electrical energy that powers the heat pump coming from, and how is it being generated?
The overall system is what counts Throughout this article I’m referring to the overall system energy efficiency of a geo-exchange heat pump system. Most people are excited about the high coefficients of performance (COP) of the water-to-water heat pump unit. A proper engineering evaluation, however, must also include all the system electrical energy loads –- including the ground source circulating pump’s energy. When all the system energy loads are taken into account, the actual overall COP of a well designed geo-exchange heat pump system seldom gets a seasonal “system” efficiency above 2.5 to 2.75, even with the heat pump unit itself having a COP of 4.0 or more.1 Again, this is a general condition, and the actual COP will change depending on the specific design, location, and source side temperature conditions that are present. It is true that heat pumps and their high COPs and energy efficiency ratios (EERs) can show significant energy cost savings, a factor that is being hyped pretty well all over the internet and at every green energy trade show. But cost savings compared to what? Compared to a brand new welldesigned conventional system in a very well-designed building?2 Or compared to replacing a 20-year old conventional HVAC system in a poorly insulated building? What, exactly IS the baseline? I have just read an article in the local news stating that BC Hydro is applying to raise the electricity rates 32% to 50% over the next three to five years. Meanwhile, natural gas rates from the local utility, FortisBC (formally known as Terasen), have fallen over the last five years and have continued on page 24 May 2011
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flattened out for the last year. What effect do you you suppose the price changes will have on all the energy cost savings that models for heat pump systems showed in the last three years? If overall carbon emissions are not a concern, and you want to evaluate a geo-exchange heat pump system against another system but based only on energy costs, this will be a very specific regional evaluation that may work in areas where there are low electrical rates compared to fossil fuel energy costs, but not in many other areas of North America. The point is that there is no common ground to be able to authoritatively say that a geo-exchange heat pump system will save energy costs “everywhere” they are applied. One rule to remember is that “energy costs” are not the same as straight energy use. In my opinion, there are two basic criteria that should be used to evaluate a building mechanical system and mechanical plant equipment for a low energy, sustainable building design: • Energy performance (not energy cost) • Carbon emissions. Good engineering must balance field source and load temperatures When evaluating the energy performance of a geo-exchange heat pump system, key factors to consider are the source-side temperature conditions over the whole year, and the load side emitter temperatures and efficiencies to transfer heating and cooling effectively to the occupied space. As the source side temperature differences relative to the load side temperature differences get closer and closer, the heat pump system COP and EER rise significantly. But keep in mind that when the heat pump is in heating mode the COP drops as the source side (geo-exchange side) temperatures get colder. This drop in energy efficiency can be drastic if the geo-exchange field has been sized improperly or the soil conductivity has been miscalculated -– a serious design issue for heating dominated climates like most of Canada. The key to safely taking advantage of the operating energy and possible carbon reduction efficiency of a ground source water-to-water heat pump system, is to use very low temperature heating water and higher temperature chilled water in the building HVAC systems, with a
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good source (ground) temperature over the whole year. Here’s where many folks get into trouble. Trying to apply a geo-exchange water-to-water heat pump system to more conventional building HVAC terminal systems that are designed to use higher temperature heating water and lower temperature chilled water seriously erodes the energy advantage of the heat pump system. The other big issue is the soil conductivity and ground heat exchange conditions assumptions and calculations. All of the heat pump system EER and COP estimates can go out of the window if the actual operating conditions of the soils cause the ground conditions around the buried geo-exchange piping to become over-heated in the summer and over-cooled in the winter. Ground temperature problems are also common with geo-exchange ground loops that are designed too small in an effort to keep installation costs down. The carbon reduction capability of a ground source heat pump system is also complex. Since the North American electrical grid is so interconnected, there is not much difference in the carbon emissions intensity of the source electricity on a regional basis. If you were to make a detailed study of geo-exchange heat pumps and their “system” carbon footprint versus a condensing natural gas boiler system — both serving identical low temperature heating systems, and strictly having minimizing carbon as a goal — the net difference in favour of the geo-exchange heat pump system is small, and fades to insignificant as the building energy losses and gains are minimized by a very high performance envelope and passive building design principles.3 LEED reference model is not true comparison The other major driver that creates the belief that geo-exchange heat pumps are the golden goose is the building energy modeling process and rules imposed by the LEED and ASHRAE 90.1 energy performance path criteria. The basic problem with the Reference Building versus the Design Building modeling set-up is that a lot of the passive building design elements are not credited. The ASHRAE 90.1 energy modeling path is used mainly to compare systems and equipment performance criteria. The energy modeling rules require default prescriptive systems and equipment to be used for the Reference Building, but these are not necessarily “business as usual” build-
Saskatchewan’s Green Directory, www.saskatchewangreendirectory.org/node/1367
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Case study of geo-exchange versus conventional building systems, www.geo-exchange.ca/en/UserAttachments/flex402_Tom%20MacDermott.pdf
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eat Pump Plant Carbon Emissions comparison: Burn natural gas at 92% efficiency = 1.09 MMBtu of fuel which makes 130 lb CO2, or Burn H #2 fuel oil at 83% efficiency = 1.2 MMBtu and 175 lb CO2, or run a ground-source heat pump and purchase 0.33 MMBtu of electricity which has made 140 lb CO2. These numbers do not apply if you live in Quebec or parts of the continent where you can purchase green energy from hydro or renewables. www.treehugger.com/files/2010/02/are-ground-source-heat-pumps-good.php
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geo-exchange ing systems that would be used for that particular building, in that particular location. And if the Proposed Building Design Model has already incorporated best solar orientation, external sun shading, and an articulated façade to reduce the building heating, cooling, and lighting loads based on passive design approaches, the Reference Building Model must also include the same basic configurations. So let’s get this straight – if we use the proper integrated design team approach to incorporate as many passive design approaches as possible before we even think about what kind of energy efficient HVAC systems we want to apply, we don’t get much, if any, credit for all that passive design!! So what IS the baseline business as usual building energy efficiency we are trying to compare our proposed design to? Well, there isn’t one if you use the commonly applied ASHRAE 90.1 Reference Building method for energy modeling! This energy modelling method results in an exaggeration of the building energy improvements using a geoexchange heat pump plant compared to a well-designed “business as usual” alternate/default HVAC system. The drive to seek LEED energy credits leads to the following analogy. The Humvee vs. the Toyota You can take a Humvee that gets 15 miles per gallon in stock form, then tune it up and improve its performance so that it gets 20 miles per gallon. That’s a 30% energy efficiency improvement, so assign 4 LEED energy credits for that accomplishment. Now take a Toyota Yaris that gets 35 mpg in stock form, and tune it up and improve its performance so it now gets 45.5 mpg, a 30% improvement in energy efficiency. Guess what? – 4 LEED energy credits for that. There is no credit for starting off with an energy-efficient design in the first place. Both vehicles have four wheels, air conditioning, and a great stereo and will get you from point A to
point B in the same amount of time. No wonder LEED buildings don’t seem to save very much energy compared to the accumulated average of all the contemporary buildings that are built “to Code.” You end up comparing a bad building design (Reference Baseline) with a not quite so bad building design to achieve “energy reductions,” and some LEED Credits. With buildings --- to use an extreme case --- if one designs a PassivHaus standard building, such that the heating and cooling requirements can be met by low-temperature heating water, and high temperature chilled water, (ideal for a water source heat pump unit, eh?), you can use a small condensing boiler, heat recovery ventilator, and just direct ground coils, to obtain cool water for building cooling purposes (or air intake earth tubes or natural ventilation in the
right climates). This approach could be as energy-efficient, or more energy efficient, than a geo-exchange heat pump plant on a yearly basis, and could result in less carbon emissions. If the electricity to run a geo-exchange heat pump plant comes from a renewable energy source generator, however, then the evaluation can take a very different direction in favour of the heat pump. Remember, the most efficient HVAC system is the one that doesn’t have to run. Build tight and ventilate right. CCE Geoff McDonell, P.Eng., LEED AP, is with Cobalt Engineering of Vancouver. He has over 30 years of experience in mechanical engineering design, HVAC, plumbing, fire protection, controls systems and pas• Ontario/Manitoba - www.ebseng.com sive building E-mail gmcdonell@ 320design. Woolwich Street South, Breslau ON cobaltengineering.com • British Columbia - www.c3is.ca 12220 Vickers Way, Richmond, BC
1.866.649.3613
There’s only one thing we leave to Proven Reliable! Helical Piers and Anchors. EBS Engineering and Construction Ltd. 320 Woolwich Street South, Breslau ON Ontario/Manitoba - www.ebseng.com
1.866.649.3613 May 2011
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geo-exchange
By Laurier Nichols, ing., Dessau
An engineer uses scenarios to show how local energy costs and the way a GSHP system is used dictate whether it's the right solution.
Making Sense of Geo-Exchange .
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want to share with my fellow engineers some information on the profitability of using energy from a vast reservoir that is embedded right under our feet, in the ground — low temperature geothermal energy. Many building owners and designers ask themselves if a ground source heat pump is profitable or if it is only a concept for the future. The answer depends on where you are located and what is the relative cost of the different energy sources available in your area. Another very important factor to consider is how the system will be used. Water heating - perfect case Let’s begin with a simple hot water heating system. Assume, for example, that the hot water usage of a building is in the range of 11,300 litres daily. The building could be a fitness centre with a steady occupancy by members so the hot water heating could be averaged for each hour of the day. The system has a water storage tank of 11,300 litres. If the water has to be heated from 4ºC to 60ºC, the average heating requirement (power) will be 30 kW (steady state kW during each hour). This heating power has to be on 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The annual energy usage will be 262,800 kWh per year. Electricity cost In the province of Quebec, for a continuous demand at tariff “M” for an average size building (more than 100 kW for the monthly demand), the electricity rate will be in the range of $0.073/ kWh (including sales taxes). If the hot water is heated with a standard electric boiler, the annual cost of heating it will be in the range of $19,184 per year. 26
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Figure 1: Heating requirements based on the thermal balance of the building.
Figure 2: 300 kW heat pump contribution to heating
Figure 3: Residual heating requirements after usage of ground source heat pump.
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geo-exchange
GSHP cost If the same amount of hot water is heated with a water-to-water ground source heat pump (geothermal system), with a total COP of 3.2, the annual energy cost will be in the range of $5,995. This represents an annual saving of $13,189. The added capital costs of the geothermal system could be in the range of $50,000. With these numbers, the return on investment (simple payback) is $50,000/$13,189 = 3.79 years. These figures are for an optimum return on investment with a system in use every hour of the year. This type of usage profile is not frequent, but it can be found. Natural gas cost In Quebec, if the hot water is heated with natural gas, at an average cost of $0.55 per cubic metre and a seasonal boiler efficiency of 70%, the annual cost would be $19,619. This is similar to the cost of electricity, when heating is on a steady basis. If the natural gas system uses a condensing boiler, then the annual cost could be lower. For a 90% efficient boiler, the annual cost could be $15,260. The added capital cost for a condensing boiler installation may be $5,000 more expensive than a standard boiler system. The return on investment of the condensing boiler system is $5,000/$4,359 = 1.14 year. It is interesting but it is not the most efficient system. Using the condensing boiler as the point of comparison, the added capital cost of the geothermal energy system is now $45,000. The annual operating saving is $9,265. Then the return on investment for the geothermal energy system is now $45,000/$9,265 = 4.85 years. For a site with average ground conductivity and ground diffusion, the geothermal energy system of 30 kW requires the use of three (3.25 exact
Above: Ecole du Tournant, St-Constant near Montreal uses GSHP for heating and air-conditioning and is one of the most energy-efficient buildings in Canada, consuming 71 kWh/m2 per year.
calculation) wells with a dept of 152 m. The above example is almost a perfect case for the geothermal energy system. The usage factor is high, the cost of electricity is low, and the alternative energy source has a high cost. This situation could be suitable for the provinces of Quebec, Manitoba or British Columbia, but this is certainly not the case for Ontario, Alberta or any province with natural gas available at a very low cost when compared to electricity. Building heating, cooling and thermal balance Let’s now discuss the usage factor for building heating. This is more complicated because the heating requirement is driven by many interrelated components of the whole building. These components are: heat losses of the envelope, heating of outside ventilation air, heat gains from the sun, inside heat gains from the use of equipment, inside heat gains from the use of lighting, the schedules of operation and occupancy of the building, etc. Taken together these factors are what we call the thermal balance. It is the thermal balance of a building that dictates its hourly heating
requirements. Of course, the design of heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems also has a major impact on the thermal balance of a building. Figure 1 shows the hourly heating requirements for a hypothetical building located in Montreal. It should be noted that the internal gains associated with the building usage and the gains associated with the outside weather conditions are already taken into account. On the X axis are the annual hours and on the Y axis are the hourly heating requirements in kW. On this figure, one can see that the maximum heating requirement is 950 kW at hour 368 in the month of January. The number is based on the weather data used for the modeling of the building. The annual heating requirements of this building have been established at 1,328,000Â kWh, with a peak demand of 950 kW. It would be highly expensive to design a ground source heating system to respond to the highest heating peak. All heating requirements over 600 kW are needed for only few hours in a year. The cost effectiveness of a geothercontinued on page 28 May 2011
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mal energy system could be evaluated by analyzing the thermal balance of the building. A lower kW for heating leads to a larger usage factor. The optimization of the geothermal system also takes into account the cooling contribution, but the heating contribution is more important. For most buildings, the most important energy saving with a ground source heat pump is in the heating contribution. For an average size commercial building in Montreal, the cooling energy is not a major part of the building requirements. It is in the range of 10%. Figure 2 shows what contribution a 300 kW geothermal energy system makes to the building’s heating requirements. It should be noted that 300 kW represents 32% of the peak heating demand. With the hourly analysis, the graph shows that the geothermal system of 300 kW could supply 81% of the annual heating requirements.
The contribution to the heating requirements by the geothermal energy heat pump for this building is 1,070,000 kWh. For a building with this thermal balance, the return on investment, considering the cost of the several energy sources in the Montreal area, would be between 7 to 12 years. Figure 3 shows the residual heating requirements that could be supplied by other energy sources (electricity, natural gas, propane, oil, etc.). Balancing heat extraction and rejection Several questions arise from geothermal energy system users about the availability of heat from the ground. In the Montreal area, for a building that is air cooled in summer (airconditioned) with an average heating requirement in winter, a balance of the heat occurs between the heat extraction in winter and the heat rejec-
ABBOTSFORD CALGARY COURTENAY EDMONTON KELOWNA NANAIMO RICHMOND SURREY VICTORIA
tion in summer. In this case, the ground acts as seasonal heat storage. In southern Canada, we have this beneficial situation. What happens when a building is not cooled in summer or barely cooled? In theory, the ground temperature should lower every year and, after several years the geothermal system’s contribution to heating will be reduced. Several analyses of the heat balance of existing buildings using specialized softwares (GS-2000, GLD, Transys, etc.) show a decrease in the performance of the ground source heat pump in these circumstances. However, in practice it has been found that installed systems for these buildings remain operational without a decrease of the ground temperature. This is based on the monitoring of several buildings that have a thermal imbalance. The heat extraction continued on page 30
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renewable energy
wind worries BY JOHN G. SMITH
THOSE WHO FEEL THREATENED BY WIND FARMS BELIEVE THEY ARE FIGHTING FOR THEIR LIVES. WILL AN ONTARIO ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW TRIBUNAL AGREE?
I
an Hanna became more concerned about plans for a local wind farm after every public meeting. It started when he saw how close the project was to his home, as he first began to hear about research into potential health threats. Then a doctor told him about the bats. This research showed that lowfrequency sounds from a wind farm may actually be shaking the winged creatures to death. “That,” Hanna says, “was the moment I became alarmed.” Hanna was soon one of the leading challengers in the fight against new rules for Ontario wind farms, even after plans for turbines near his Prince Edward County home were scuttled (the Department of National Defence is protecting the air space around nearby Mountain View Airport). An Ontario Divisional Court challenge in his name argued that the Environment Minister failed to follow a “precautionary science-based approach” when establishing minimum 550metre setbacks for the installations — a buffer designed to limit noise exposure to less than 40 decibels. This March, the court ruled that the Minister did follow the process mandated by the Environmental Bill of Rights, leaving challenges against individual projects to new environmental review tribunals. The first was being held this spring in ChathamKent, where Katie Erickson and Chatham-Kent Wind Action are fighting Suncor’s bid to build the Kent Breeze Wind Farm. Eric Gillespie, the Toronto lawyer retained by Hanna and Erickson, says the latest evidence includes much more medical research than he brought to Divisional Court. By the time closing arguments are made in late May, the tribunal will have heard
25 witnesses from as far afield as the U.S., United Kingdom and Australia. A final ruling on this project will be made about six weeks after that. A report by Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Arlene King, rejected many of the health concerns. “While some people living near wind turbines report symptoms such as dizziness, headaches, and sleep disturbance, the scientific evidence available to date does not demonstrate a direct causal link between wind turbine noise and adverse sound effects,” she wrote. “The sound level from wind turbines at common residential setbacks is not sufficient to cause hearing impairment or other direct health effects, although some people may find it annoying.” “The balance of expert scientific and medical information to date clearly indicates there is no direct link between wind turbines and effects on human health,” Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) president Robert Hornung added in a statement after the Divisional Court ruling. Those opposing wind turbines obviously have a different opinion. Wind Concerns Ontario, for example, claims more than 100 people are affected by the province’s existing industrial wind turbines. Others cite Portuguese research concluding that long-term exposure to the vibration caused by lowfrequency sound and infrasound may lead to vibro-acoustic disease, with symptoms ranging from depression to neurovascular disorders and strokes. Then there are the physical threats from above. A Dutch handbook says as many as one in 2,400 blades might fail a year. Turbines have been known to fail because of factors as diverse as mecontinued on page 30 May 2011
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chanical problems or lightning strikes, but the situations are rare, stresses Tom Levy, CanWEA’s manager of technical and utility affairs. Any flying metal also appears to fall within the minimum setbacks when a failure does occur. While blades have been thrown as far as 150 metres, fragments have travelled no more than 500 metres. Ice on the blades will travel less than that. A study near Kincardine, Ontario, for example, never reported ice more than 100 metres from a turbine’s base. The threat can also be controlled by tracking related vibrations and shutting down everything automatically or by remote control. Justin Rangooni, CanWEA’s Ontario policy manager, suggests that wind farm opponents have been changing the nature of their challenges. First it was about aesthetics. Now it is a matter of health. In Ontario they seem to be
geo-exchange
John G. Smith owns WordSmith Media in Ajax, Ont.
continued from page 28
is much more stable compared to heat rejection, where the hot surface tends to dry the ground and lower the heat conductivity. The difference between the theoretical calculations and the experience in the field could be caused by underground water that migrates and improves the heat sink. Several articles published in Switzerland and Germany suggest this phenomena. Facing these uncertainties, it is advisable to prepare space for installing solar collectors that can be used to replenish the heat in the ground when heating requirements are more important than heat rejection. These solar collectors could be installed in a subsequent phase only if underground water migration is not present and the performance of the geothermal system deteriorates. In designing a geothermal energy system, questions might arise about the ground conductivity and ground heat diffusion. Most of the time, the average conductivities of the soil ma-
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aligning views with opposition parties as October elections approach, Rangooni adds. The province already has more than a dozen wind farms capable of generating more than 40 megawatts each, and those numbers are expected to double in the next two to four years under the wind-friendly Green Energy Act, which has streamlined the approval process. But Hanna won’t need to worry about the noise of wind turbines. Instead, he can listen to the sound of Hercules aircraft droning overhead, as military personnel are trained at Mountain View Airport. “We have no problem with that,” he says. “We’re dealing with something that doesn’t hurt us. I’m not prepared to grant you that with an industrial turbine.” CCE
terials can be used, but it is advisable to drill a test well to identify the type of soil before designing the whole system. Tests of the conductivity of the soil could also be used to optimize the number of wells when a large number (more than 20) is required. In conclusion, the geothermal energy extracted by ground source heat pumps does help to lower the energy usage of buildings. The Ecole du Tournant in St-Constant (see photo p. 27) is an example of well-managed energy usage. It uses ground source heat pumps for heating and air-conditioning and has an annual total energy requirement of 71 kWh/m² per year. It is one of the most energy-efficient buildings in Canada. This school was built in 2001, the architect was Vincent Leclerc, and Dessau was the mechanical and electrical designer. CCE Laurier Nichols, ing., is Vice President, Building Expertise with Dessau in Longueuil, Quebec. He is also an editorial advisor to this magazine.
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project delivery
By Nordahl Flakstad
In Alberta, 28 schools from kindergarten to grade 9 are being built by P3 consortia, and they are all designed using a similar modular pattern.
School Design in the Era of P3s
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rovincial officials and school boards are on a learning curve as Alberta carries out Canada’s most ambitious public-private partnership (P3) school program to date. The Alberta Schools Alternative Procurement program with its catchy acronym ASAP was unveiled in late 2007 when the province announced plans to build 18 new schools in Calgary and Edmonton as a P3 project. The success of ASAP Phase I prompted the launch last year of ASAP Phase II, which is under way
and targets completing 10 more P3 schools by 2012. Although Alberta has built portions of Calgary and Edmonton’s ring roads as P3s, the province didn’t bolt from the starting blocks as fast as some other jurisdictions in adopting the design, build, finance and maintain (DBFM) model. John Gibson, director of ASAP at Alberta Infrastructure, says the P3 schools program was driven largely by necessity. By 2007, heady economic times and the influx of populations
into Alberta, particularly to new Calgary and Edmonton neighbourhoods, caused a clamour for new schools. The province was under pressure to respond quickly and cost effectively. At the time, the construction industry had trade-skills shortages, escalating costs, unmet deadlines, and plenty of work for builders and designers. Traditionally the province funds school construction through grants to school boards. However, with so many big projects on the order books, the oneschool-at-a-time, design-bid-build ap-
Barr Ryder Architects
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Above: Johnny Bright School.
Above: Esther Starkman School. May 2011
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Mechanical engineering shares basic concepts Darryl Doucet, P.Eng., a principal with Williams Engineering Canada, oversaw the mechanical group working on the Phase I schools. His firm was also involved in the 18 schools’ electrical and civil design. The schools were built following three basic general design models, but each one needed to accommodate the particularities of its location. “The outsides were configured similarly,” Doucet notes, “but really there were modifications within that design. They were similar but not that similar.” For instance, the slope of the land or the ground conditions at a particular school usually required site-specific solutions. And the orientation of a given school typically impacted mechanical loading and, for instance, the degree to which a specific school could use passive heating. While the approach did not generate any particular cost savings in terms of repeating detailed design or drawings, the general concepts were replicated. In that sense, the wheel did not have to be reinvented for each school and this allowed the designers to capture some economies of scale at the conceptual design stage. Importantly, says Doucet, P3 designs “allow a lot more freedom to look at lifecycle costing.” With such a P3 approach, there is a tendency to evaluate the cost of a design feature or component relative to its value over a longer timeframe instead of merely focusing on upfront costs. This, Doucet suggests, can prompt a different mindset on the part of design engineers as they evaluate designs, components and costs. Exhaustive design reviews were held to ensure the constructability of the buildings and their ongoing maintenance. Meetings were held once a week with the contractor and once a month with user groups.
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Above: floor plan for Johnny Bright School. All the ASAP I schools have similar core areas with modular classrooms.
proach, with individual school boards hiring their own architects, consulting engineers and contractors, seemed unlikely to bring the wanted results. “We decided we needed to deliver schools on school boards’ behalf in bundles, and P3 lent itself to that,” explains Gibson. With a decision made for the DBFM model, Alberta Infrastructure awarded the first P3 contract in 2008 to BBPP Alberta Schools Limited. The consortium had Babcock & Brown Public Partnerships as a majority owner, and included Barr Ryder Architects and Interior Designers, GEC Architecture; Honeywell Canada, and Bird-Graham Schools (a joint venture between Bird Design-Build and Graham Design Builders). Protostatix Engineering were the structural consultants, and Williams Engineering were consultants for the mechanical, electrical and civil design. The Edmonton-based architects Barr Ryder had already worked with Alberta Infrastructure to develop four of five core designs suitable for elementary, middle and elementary-junior-high schools. Some design elements such as gymnasiums were standardized. But there were opportuni-
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project delivery ties to modify the core to meet the needs of specific schools and the varied requirements of K-through-9 grade levels. As well, non-core modular classrooms can be removed or added in response to demand. The schools’ core areas vary from 3,300-5,800 square metres. Less than 1% for contingency With Alberta Infrastructure applying outcomes-based, rather than prescriptive, criteria, the ASAP program let the designers achieve the required ends by alternative means — potentially at less cost. Even within the constraints of the core designs and footprints, the program left room for innovation, particularly relative to energy use and sustainable design, and in the selection of materials and components. The schools all meet the LEED silver standard. The mandate in Phase
II is to achieve a minimum of six LEED energy points. The financial and operational models employed in both ASAP phases are similar. In return for payments by the province, the consortia commit to building the schools, then financing and maintaining them for 30 years. At the end of the term, full responsibility for the 30-year-old schools — in good condition and without deferred maintenance requirements — will be handed to the school boards. Meanwhile, over the 30-year P3 period, day-to-day school operations, including deciding educational and community use, and janitorial functions, will rest with school boards as the owners. While the P3 approach eases the government’s upfront financing needs, Gibson notes that it also shifts risks that would otherwise be borne by the province or school boards to the
consortia. Traditionally, boards have added a contingency cushion of up to 7% to school construction budgets to accommodate design changes and omissions, and to offset scope and schedule creep. With the risk shifted, Alberta Infrastructure is earmarking less than 1% for contingency. The ASAP Phase II bidding process led to the selection in April 2010 of the B2L Partnership, consisting of: Gracorp Capital Advisors and HOCHTIEF PPP Solutions as project leads; Graham Design Build Services and Bird Design Build as the design-build team, and Honeywell responsible for maintenance and renewal. GEC Architecture and Gibbs Gage Architects, both of Calgary, are the ASAP II architects of record. The key engineering consultants are TRL (structural), SNC Lavalin (mechanical and electrical), Terrain (civil in Edmoncontinued on page 35
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ASAP Phase I Schools HVAC, PLUMBING & COMMUNICATIONS • Thermal displacement ventilation. This approach discharges supply air at low velocity near the floor to form a pool of conditioned air; when warmed the air rises to the ceiling and exits through exhaust. The benefits compared to conventional mixing type ventilation are that heating/ cooling loads are only affected in the lower occupied zone, and the indoor air quality in this zone is improved. • Demand-controlled ventilation by CO2 sensors and DDC controls. • Perimeter passive radiant heating panels suspended from structure. • Heating by condensing boilers with a cascading heating loop. The boilers reduce the heating water flow rate by 66% compared to conventional heating systems and require a lower return water temperature. • Air handling systems with heat recovery. • Mechanical cooling to server rooms combined with free-cooling air systems to classrooms and administration areas as conditions permit. • Operable windows. • Voice and data cabling using latest VOIP protocols. • Low flow and sensor-operated plumbing. • All components selected for life expectancy of 30 years. LIGHTING • Designed to consume less than 1 watt/sq.ft. of lighting power density. • T5 and T8 lamps and electronic ballasts. • Daylight sensors for controlling fluorescent lighting. • Occupancy sensors in storage, washrooms and service rooms. • Exterior “dark sky” lighting. Williams Engineering Canada mechanical-electrical consulting engineers
Bundling brings economies of scale Graham Construction vice-president Kees Cusveller outlines some advantages of bundling school construction. “We benefit from economies of scale. For example, all the boiler and
ton) and BSEI (civil in Calgary area). Although not part of the Phase II consortium, Barr Ryder was hired by Alberta Infrastructure as the bridging architect to work with boards to meet schools’ site-specific requirements.
continued on page 37
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business
By Marg Latham, P.Eng.
How satisfied are your clients and how effectively are you delivering your services? If you don’t know the answer, it could be costing your firm business and profits.
Effective Quality Management
A
frequent comment from those faced with implementing to dig deeper. What are the root causes of these trends? a new quality management system, especially one Look at some projects that reflect the problems identified that is to be certified under ISO 9001, is that it will in the client interviews and financial results and conduct a be too costly. It is true that an investment is needed to de- root cause analysis. Conducting this type of analysis on a velop and introduce a quality management system (QMS) sample of your problem projects will give you a good sense where none exists or to improve one that is ineffective. How- of where to start to improve. ever, that investment should more Putting effective quality Proposals; design reviews; than pay for itself if it is made wisely. To be a successful consulting management in place should managing the scope engineering firm you must be deI was asked by a transportation sector not be costly, nor should leader to help identify why his group livering solutions that your clients it handcuff competent was experiencing significant project value. How satisfied are your clients and how effectively are you professionals. write-downs. I worked with him to facilidelivering your services? tate a series of root cause analyses on a If you do not know the answer to these questions, your sample of problem projects. We found that the majority of quality management — or lack of it — may be costing your the problems began with a poor proposal process. Many of firm business and profitability. Lost opportunities and cli- the proposals did not include a detailed task list and did not ents, a damaged reputation, project write-downs, reduced document assumptions made to prepare the proposal. This profit margins or costly claims could all result from not ef- meant that during the project it was difficult to identify and fectively managing the quality of your work. be paid for out-of-scope work. Improving the proposal process could resolve over half of the problem projects. The Digging deep for root causes analysis also indicated that most of the remainder were reStart by finding out how your clients perceive your firm’s lated to inadequate interim reviews that caused costly reperformance. Meet with clients. Ask open ended questions. work. Focusing on improving these two areas reduced the Use a standard set of questions about performance issues so project write-downs and provided an immediate return on that you get some consistent information. Find out how you the investment spent on improving procedures. are performing in areas that are important to your clients. In another instance, a review of claims and client comCapture exact quotes. Be sure to ask your clients how they plaints indicated issues related to design reviews. A root cause rate your firm compared with your competition and why. analysis showed that teams were not confirming all design Then review the information you capture from these in- inputs and not reviewing input data to confirm that it was terviews and look for trends. Are there common themes current, accurate, complete and adequate for the design. By adopting a simple process and recording problems, the dethat identify areas to investigate or improve? What else will tell you where to invest in better quality? partment dramatically decreased the incidence of claims and The answer lies in areas where poor quality is currently hav- complaints within two years. In comparison, in the two years ing a negative impact on your profitability. Review project prior to the process change there were a number of claims financial reports. Assess whether your projects are achieving with potentially high settlements for work completed. In a third instance, concerns were raised about the planned profitability. Identify common themes such as the types of projects that regularly fail to achieve profit goals, ability of project managers to manage effectively the and identify project managers with poor track records. firm’s scope of work on projects. It would have been easy By the time you have completed your review of the cli- to blame the project managers. However, an assessment ent and financial data, you will likely be seeing some com- determined the need for some specific project managemon themes that flag areas in need of improvement. ment training, which was implemented using an outside However, these trends at a macro level will not necessarily provider and resulted in the same project managers tell you what to change to improve your quality. You need doing a much better job. continued on page 38 36
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air-handling units are the same. This allows for ease of maintenance and installation.” Approaching a supplier with a potential order of two dozen or more units offers considerable puchasing leverage. A steel fabricator who can dedicate time and resources to manufacturing a series of similar structures can offer better prices and delivery schedules. The same applies to windows, flooring, doors and many other components. Having two years of steady work for trades makes it easier to schedule subtrades and equipment. Cusveller estimates that up to 70 trades people are working at each ASAP II site (peaking at 1,000 overall) as they advance toward 2012 completion. Based on economies of scale, improved risk management, innovation and workflow efficiencies, plus other savings, over the 32 years (in-
cluding two years of construction) ASAP I will save the Alberta government $97 million (2010 dollars). Schools that would have cost a total of $731 million via traditional delivery will cost $634 million through P3. Comparable savings projected for ASAP II are $105 million (in current dollars) based on a total price of $358 million through traditional delivery, against $253 million under DBFM. Cusveller believes the guarantee for on-time completion at a fixed price, along with a 30-year warranty, makes P3 attractive for school projects. By placing the onus on the consortia, governments sidestep the temptation of postponing maintenance in favour of new construction. After all, Cusveller observes, “politicians don’t usually get re-elected by promising a new roof or new windows, much as they may be needed.”
Alberta Instructure continues to review the lessons of ASAP. According to John Gibson, potential P3 followups include more schools, hospitals, seniors housing, and water/wastewater treatment. Barr Ryder’s Steven Bushnell offers a more nuanced assessment. He cautions: “I think it can be a very timesensitive model. At the time ASAP I was done, given the market condition and the challenges of inflation and ability to get contractors and subtrades, it appears to have been the right thing to do. As Phase I has been constructed and Phase II is underway, now would be an appropriate time to evaluate the construction delivery method with today’s economic environment and also the programmatic value of the core-school model.” CCE Nordahl Flakstad is a freelancer writer based in Edmonton.
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business
continued from page 36
Monitoring the results Putting effective quality management in place should not be costly, nor should it handcuff competent professionals. Finding the root cause of costly poor quality problems will provide you with the focus for implementing initial quality management controls. How much effort and controls you decide to put in place in other areas will depend on the level of skill of your professionals and the risk to the firm. Once in place, a quality management system must be monitored for improvement. Effective feedback systems and metrics can be used to identify what is working well and where improvements to the system are needed. Auditing to confirm that employees are complying with the QMS is a way of helping to embed the use of the necessary processes, and when it is coupled with an ISO 9001 certification, auditing can have added benefits. CCE Marg Latham, P.Eng. is president of Aqua Libra Consulting in Vancouver helping companies deliver business development programs. She was a vice president with UMA/AECOM Canada from 2000-2009. 38
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human edge
Cycling DiBattista
A trip across Canada’s highways on two wheels
J
eff DiBattista, P.Eng. is a principal in DIALOG, working from the Edmonton office, and he is current president of Consulting Engineers of Alberta. Between June and August last year he cycled coast to coast across Canada accompanied by his family — wife Traci, and children Alyssa and Nick — who travelled along with him by vehicle. Jeff made the trip for the family experience and to raise funds for cancer research, totalling over $40,000. At age 40, however, he also says that taking the challenge “could have been part of my mid-life crisis.” Q. YOU CYCLED ABOUT 100 KILOMETRES A DAY?
Yes, roughly. It was a little tiring but not exhausting. Many days I’d be wrapped up by 2.30 in the afternoon and my family and I could spend the rest of the day exploring whichever little town or city that we happened to be in. Q. WAS IT DANGEROUS?
About two-thirds of the trip I was either on secondary highways or on highways that were in pretty good shape with a wide paved shoulder. But there were about 2,000 kilometres of road where the shoulders aren’t paved that weren’t very fun. I was riding a cross bike, more like a racing bike than a mountain bike, so I couldn’t ride on gravel. It meant that I was unpleasantly close to some trucks, particularly on the Trans-Canada through northern Ontario. Even Highway 16 heading into Saskatoon — the northern TransCanada through Alberta and Saskatchewan — is in great shape until you get about 30 kilometres outside Saskatoon. Then the road just falls apart and the shoulders aren’t paved. So you are out there playing chicken with transport trucks. Q. WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE PLACE?
I have been struggling to answer that question. The different places we visited, I gave each of them mentally what we can call an “interestingness score.” I stole that term from the Flickr website. I would say the interestingness is the sum total of the cultural, the historic, the physical geography, the urban fabric. When you wrap all that stuff up together I found Newfoundland and St. John’s extremely interesting. The physical geography is very different from the rest of Canada. The language is a bit different. The food is different. So I really enjoyed it. 42
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DiBattista on the road last summer. Q. DID YOU SOCIALIZE WITH THE LOCALS ON THE TRIP?
Oh yes. We stopped in a lot of small towns, lots of places with populations of a few hundred, or maybe a thousand. These communities have tried to reinvent themselves as their young people have moved away, or the highway bypassed the town, or the mine closed. They all face similar challenges and are all trying to find ways to sustain themselves. Q. DID YOU SEE ANY STRIKING EXAMPLES OF ENGINEERING?
The province that probably surprised me the most as an interesting place to ride was New Brunswick. About a decade ago New Brunswick built a new trans-Canada highway and left behind the old highways that follow the St. John River. The St. John is a pretty big river and it has bridges all the way down because both sides have been inhabited for 100 or 200, maybe more, years. The bridges are absolutely fabulous if you are a structural engineer as I am — truss bridges, concrete arch bridges, wooden covered bridges. It’s quite a lovely bicycle ride along highways that are almost deserted. So as an engineer I highly recommend that one. It’s very cool. CCE
May 2011
27/04/11 10:24 AM
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