Run-of-river and geo-exchange projects provide green energy alternatives

Senior Mechanical Engineer, Sean Bolongaro has returned to Associated Engineering as Practice Leader for our new Renewable Energy Group. Sean will lead the company’s efforts in developing and delivering environmentally sustainable, renewable energy projects, including small hydro, wind power, biogas, geothermal, and energy recovery technology.

We have had some early successes in the renewable energy arena. These include run-of-river hydro generation projects as well as geo- exchange heating and cooling systems.

Raging River Hydroelectric site on Vancouver Island, BC

Upgrading the Raging River hydroelectric site provides additional capacity
Associated Engineering is providing engineering services to WindRiver Power Corporation to upgrade the Raging River hydroelectric site, located 26 kilometres east of Port Alice on Vancouver Island in BC. The existing facility was built in the early 1900s to provide power for a nearby mine site.

Today, the Raging River facility is connected to the BC Hydro grid, and WindRiver saw the potential to upgrade the site. The current project will increase its capacity from 2 megawatts to 8 megawatts.

The existing facilities include a dam, an inlet structure and tunnel, a penstock, a powerhouse and generator, and an electrical switchyard. The upgrades include:

• Upgrading the inlet structure
• Removing the existing steel penstock and constructing a concrete bulkhead at the intake outlet
• Constructing a new 2400 millimetre diameter welded steel penstock from the concrete bulkhead to the new powerhouse
• Constructing a new powerhouse on the old foundation with two new 4 megawatt turbines.

Associated Engineering is providing engineering services for the transient and hydraulic analyses for the tunnel and penstock, as well as civil, structural, electrical, and mechanical design of the intake structure, penstock, and powerhouse.

Sean, Project Manager for this assignment, advises, “Run-of-river hydro projects are a great way of feeding renewable energy into the power grid. This project is particularly interesting as the site was previously designed for a set capacity. The new installation will be designed for maximum generation while still meeting all environmental requirements. The result is a green project with a capacity four times that of the original.”

Key staff on the project include Bob Hawboldt, Mark Porter, Dale Harrison, Lewis Macrae, Eddie Rothschild, Helen Zhang, John Tait, Kelvin Kundert, Lisa Yu, Francois Atkinson, and Jeff Ruzicka.

Geo-exchange heating and cooling offer green energy
Geo-exchange systems use the earth or large bodies of water as a heat source or sink at alternating times of the year to provide heating and cooling to buildings. Associated Engineering has completed a number of geoexchange heating and cooling systems, specifically for water treatment plants in Kelowna, Vernon, Naramata, and Campbell River, BC, all of which draw from lake water sources.

Located in the Okanagan, the Kelowna, Vernon, and Naramata plants experience extended cold winters and hot summers with extreme outdoor ambient tempera- tures. This equates to high heating and cooling operating energy costs, both in the winter and summer. To reduce operating costs for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) and to capitalize on available resources, highly efficient HVAC systems were required. As energy in the process is spent exclusively on pumping fluids through the system rather than on creating heat, efficiencies are significantly greater than traditional HVAC systems (300 to 400% versus 90 to 95% efficiency). The geo-exchange system controls are incorporated into a plant-wide control system, which allows the operator to monitor the system’s performance as well as make program and set-point changes to optimize efficiencies and meet specific requirements. In winter, outside air quantities are minimized, but during the summer months, outside air is used for space cooling whenever ambient temperatures are suitable.

For more information on our renewable energy services, contact Sean Bolongaro at bolongaros@ae.ca