Innovative energy thinking by Christchurch City Council
Overview
Operating and Sports and Recreation facilities requires major financial investment – for larger councils the cost can surpass a million dollars a year. With escalating energy prices, and pressure on territorial and local authorities to limit rates increases, energy efficiency has become an important focus.
Like many authorities, Christchurch City Council manages a large portfolio of public facilities and amenities, ranging from street lighting to libraries. Around 15% of the council’s total energy bill is spent on sports and recreation specific facilities. In recent years, the council has completed a range of substantial energy efficiency projects – demonstrating that lateral thinking can lead to major savings.
Background & partners
Christchurch City Council has had an Energy Manager since 1993. The role is now held by Leonid Itskovich. “It’s my job to identify energy efficiency opportunities, provide finance, supervise projects, and monitor results,” Leonid explains.
Staying in touch with what’s going on elsewhere is important. Energy managers from councils around the country meet about once a year. EECA (the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority) facilitates these meetings. However, Christchurch City Council’s initiatives have not directly involved other councils.
The initiatives
Here are a number of feature projects undertaken by Christchurch City Council, within the sports and recreation sector:
Ground source heat pumps used for pools. Back in 1999, the council undertook a major redevelopment of Centennial Leisure Centre pool and Pioneer Swimming Complex. “We made a great effort to be as energy efficient as possible in pool heating, we didn’t want to use any fossil fuels,” says Leonid. The boiler-free solution for both pools featured ground source heat pumps, which access heat from the soil. Importantly, ground source heat pumps deliver very stable efficiency, all year round; far more so than air source heat pumps. Ground source heat pumps have a co-efficient of performance rating of around 4.5, compared to a standard boiler’s efficiency rating of around 0.9 – for the same kilowatt input the pumps deliver over four times the water heating.
Waste methane powers QEII pool. The QEII pool complex, which is Australasia's largest aquatic facility, faced a soaring energy bill. So in 2007, a project was undertaken to pipe methane gas from the discontinued Burwood landfill site, 4 km away. The gas is now used for heating, as well as to generate around half the electricity used on site (using a ‘co-generation plant’). “We made an economic analysis. The capital cost was about $4 million, with a payback of five years. We decided it was a good project,” says Leonid.
As it turned out, with energy costs continuing to rise, the actual payback will be around four years. “We’re saving around $1 million per year on gas and power, compared to if we weren’t piping the gas.” While it is difficult to assess the landfill’s exact methane capacity, stores will last for at least another ten years.
Waste heat piped to Centennial Leisure Centre. Centennial Leisure Centre is a modern inner-city leisure pool and fitness centre. Across the road from the pool, there’s an industrial neighbour, WhisperTech Limited. “They had waste heat available - they were using a cooling tower to get rid of the heat, 24 hours a day, all year,” notes Leonid. In 2007, Council approached the company. They were happy to have a pipe installed to carry the heat across the road – where it is now used for pool heating. The financial savings are about $30,000 per year – and it’s far more environmentally sound.
High tech solution at Jellie Park redevelopment. One of the council’s more recent projects involved redevelopment of Jellie Park swimming complex, which now offers two indoor 25m pools, a 50m outdoor pool, plus dive, teaching and pre-schooler pools. “We used state of the art ground source heat pumps, and heat recovery from the exhaust air. It is super energy efficient,” says Leonid. The $152,000 energy efficiency project has resulted in annual energy savings of around $96,000.
Ongoing energy management. As well as undertaking targeted energy efficiency projects, the council has an ongoing energy management programme. “I engage with facility managers. We run energy efficiency audits for each facility on a regular basis. We find new opportunities to reduce consumption,” says Leonid. There is detailed monthly tracking of energy usage, with any unexpected figures immediately addressed.
Key benefits
Through its long-standing commitment to energy efficiency, Christchurch City Council has achieved major financial savings. “The total cost of energy for all our sports and recreation facilities is about $1.5 million a year. If we hadn’t done the energy efficiency projects the bill would have been around $3.5 million per year,” enthuses Leonid. “If our facility managers can save millions on energy - they can do something better with this money.”
Ultimately, the city’s ratepayers benefit from cost-efficient council operations. Sport and recreation users benefit from access to top-quality, efficient facilities. At QEII Park, for example, the savings help to keep the price of admission down.
Of course, efficiency is also the environmentally responsible approach: environmental and financial benefits are often inseparable. Again at QEII, the project earned the council carbon credits for using up waste methane. So over a five-year period, they are selling around $4 million of credits to a European buyer. This money will be directed at city-wide energy efficiency strategies to benefit the wider community.
"The energy efficiency success story at Christchurch is due to the active participation of facility managers and key staff in the process,” concludes Leonid. “After all, it is not their prime responsibility to conserve energy, save money, protect environment, etc. These things are not in their job descriptions. It is because of their sense of civic responsibility that the energy projects have been successful - and they are very proud of this.”
Looking ahead
For Christchurch, energy efficiency will continue to be a vital driver of new projects and ongoing operations. While every portfolio of sport and recreation facilities will vary - this council’s work demonstrates the remarkable potential.
Contacts and links
To know more about Christchurch City Council’s energy efficiency initiatives, please visit http://www.ccc.govt.nz/EnergyEfficiency/Projects/. You can email Leonid on Leonid.Itskovich@ccc.govt.nz or call him on 03 941 8793.
To know more about the city’s recreation and sport facilities, visit www.ccc.govt.nz/recreation
To know more about how EECA supports councils and local communities, with advice and networking opportunities, visit www.eeca.govt.nz
Updated | 06 Apr 2009.
Skip page tools.
