Gibsons council has approved a six-month agreement with Altum Engineering to look after monitoring and maintenance of the Town-owned District Energy Utility.
The geothermal system that serves the Parkland neighbourhood in upper Gibsons failed last winter, leaving several homeowners without their primary source of heat. Many faced costly hydro bills for running back-up systems.
After a review, Altum was brought in to make improvements to the system including adding two boilers and new pump controls.
The remediation and upgrade project cost the Town about $162,000 and the operating costs for the year are expected to hit around $85,000, including $10,500 to reimburse property owners and $26,300 to replace ethanol lost because of the leaks. The utility’s 2017 revenues are expected to be $30,939.
The six-month contract with Altum, which was approved at the Nov. 21 council meeting, will cost $1,000 per month. As well as keeping tabs on how well the system is operating and dealing with problems, Altum will be responsible for improving communication between homeowners, private heating contractors, and the Town. For homeowners, that includes setting up an online forum where they can ask questions and share information with each other and staff at Altum.
In his report to an earlier committee meeting, director of engineering Dave Newman said, “With the backup boilers in place and with the approval of an operations and maintenance plan in time for the 2017/2018 heating season, the Town will be in an excellent position to realize its goal of providing a reliable alternative heating and cooling utility for the residents of Parkland.”
Mayor Wayne Rowe said the Town will also have to find a way to make sure the District Energy Utility is covering its costs in the future.
“It was a pretty stressful winter last winter for residents and for Town staff. I appreciate the work that’s been done trying to make sure that we’ve got a handle on this now,” he said.
“In the long term we’re really going to need to look at making sure that the revenues from that system do provide for [capital] depreciation. We’re doing that for the water system and the sewer system – we have to make sure that this system ultimately is billed at rates that cover not only the cost but future [infrastructure] replacement.”
David Hayward, the president of a strata in Parkland, told councillors during the public inquiries session that he and others are concerned about the decision to reduce the ethanol levels in the system to 10 per cent following the upgrades. The system had been designed originally to use a 20 per cent solution.
“If you’re not giving us the proper product and it damages our heat pumps, we’re out a lot of money,” Hayward told councillors. “Twenty per cent wasn’t out of thin air – it’s the industry standard for our area… We don’t have a geothermal system, we’ve now got a system that’s heated by a gas-fired boiler.”
Hayward also suggested increasing rates would not sit well with residents who were told when they moved in that being hooked into the District Energy Utility, which was mandatory, would mean significant savings.
