Burnaby wants to create its own energy system for Metrotown and Edmonds

Tired of receiving emails from BC Hydro telling you you’re on the way to a higher usage rate?

The City of Burnaby says it can help.

The city is working on creating its own District Energy Utility (DEU), aiming to recycle wasted energy to heat homes and businesses in Burnaby—and it says the system would provide residents with affordable, reliable, and climate friendly energy.

The system would make use of Metro Vancouver’s Waste-to-Energy facility, which is essentially an incinerator that burns non-recyclable waste and garbage and converts it into electricity. The facility is located in Burnaby’s Big Bend area near the Fraser River.

Once the waste is processed, it delivers heat for space heating and domestic hot water heating through a network of underground pipes.

“District energy is a versatile, proven technology used in cities across the world and is at the forefront of efforts to transition buildings to a low carbon, sustainable future. Rather than each building having its own furnaces or boilers, a district energy system can provide thermal energy to multiple buildings–or even entire neighbourhoods–through a central energy plant,” the city says on its website.

“Hot water produced at the plant is transmitted 24/7 through highly insulated underground network of thermal piping. The thermal energy is transferred directly to the building’s heating system, simplifying building operations.”

Metro Vancouver says it handles about 260,000 tonnes of garbage per year—about a quarter of the region’s total garbage, and enough to power 16,000 homes a year.

A feasibility study found that the facility generates enough energy to serve the Metrotown and Edmonds neighbourhoods, alongside the River District in Vancouver.

It’s in Metrotown and Edmonds that the city intends to begin providing energy in 2026, noting that almost half of the city’s population growth is expected to be centred around those two neighbourhoods over the next two decades.

Burnaby says transitioning to the new system would replace the need for carbon intensive fuels like natural gas, reducing the equivalent of 22,400 tonnes of CO2 annually.

“Metro Vancouver is dedicated to climate action and we’re looking forward to adding the Metrotown and Edmonds neighbourhoods to our district energy system, which will provide heat and hot water powered by our Waste-to-Energy Facility,” Metro Vancouver chair George V. Harvie said in a press release.

“Making better use of our available energy resources will help us achieve our goal of becoming a carbon-neutral region by 2050, while providing a sustainable heat source for homes and businesses.”

Mayor Mike Hurley said the system will help Burnaby get closer to its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050.

However, the incinerator facility has come under fire in the past from some organizations—including Zero Waste BC and the Centre for Policy Alternatives BC Office, which say that incineration can actually produce more emissions than landfills.

Zero Waste BC board member Sue Maxwell told the Beacon last year that waste-to-energy facilities put too much priority on the waste itself.

“Once you lock into a system where now you’ll have a bunch of houses that are dependent on the incinerator for heating, what we have seen in other jurisdictions is that they’ve ended up importing waste,” Maxwell said.

“You need to keep on feeding the incinerator. So other jurisdictions have ended up importing waste in order to keep it going, or they have kind of slacked off on their waste reduction efforts, because they actually want the waste.”

Hawaii and Florida, she said, had instances of cancelling recycling programs to provide enough material for their incinerators.

At the last council meeting in March, city council approved the draft DEU policy and directed staff to move forward on finalizing it.

The city says existing buildings would have the option to connect to the system, but it would be mandatory new construction in the core Metrotown and Edmonds service areas.

Several Burnaby communities already employ their own district energy systems—including SFU, BCIT, Solo District, and Burnaby Central Secondary School.

With files from Dustin Godfrey