The University of Victoria's two new Passive House-certified student residences – Cheko'nien House and Sngequ House – feature an electrified kitchen and electric air-source heat pumps. (Photo courtesy the University of Victoria)
University chases CO2 reductions with campus-wide heating transformation
Part of a series on BC Hydro Clean Energy Champions: businesses, homes, and institutions – large and small – recognized for reducing their reliance on fossil fuels.
When the University of Victoria's new electric boilers come online in late 2026, they'll quietly do something remarkable: cut the fossil fuel use of the school's district energy system by about 65%.
It's a big leap forward for a system that heats nearly 75% of UVic's campus buildings – some 3.1 million square feet – and it's the centrepiece of a broader climate strategy that could make UVic a national leader in campus decarbonization.
Funded by a BC Hydro low carbon electrification incentive, the project is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 89,000 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent over its lifetime – a major step toward UVic's target of cutting campus emissions in half by 2030, and entirely by 2040. With BC Hydro's help, UVic found a way to size new electric boilers so that a costly electricity upgrade wouldn't be required.
"From an engineering context, we needed to find a sweet spot," says David Adams, UVic's associate director of energy services. "We're installing electric boilers much smaller than our peak demand of 14 megawatts. We settled on 4.2 megawatts, and that's enough to cut our fossil fuel use by about 65% at the district energy plant.
"We'll use our electric boilers to meet our base load for day-to-day operations, and on those really cold days we'll also use the natural gas boilers to meet demand peaks."
While the heating plant project may be the star, UVic is also lowering emissions and increasing efficiency with various other projects across the campus, including:
- An Engineering and Computer Science/High Bay Lab project – two interconnected civil engineering buildings set to open in 2026 – that's targeting LEED Gold V4 certification and the Canada Green Building Council's Zero Carbon Building Standard. Features of the CleanBC-funded project include mass timber construction, rooftop and wall-mounted solar panels, green roofs, bird-friendly design, and Indigenous plant landscaping.
- Completion of two new student residences – Čeqʷəŋín ʔéʔləŋ (Cheko'nien House) and Sŋéqə ʔéʔləŋ (Sngequ House) – that achieved Passive House certification and delivered 1 million kWh in annual energy savings through advanced energy efficiency design boosted by BC Hydro design support and incentives.
- A retrofit to the Fraser Law Building Heating Plant, including heat pumps for heating and cooling to the new National Centre for Indigenous Law, completed in 2025 and expected to reduce lifetime GHG emissions by 3,000 tCO2e.
The university has been a BC Hydro Power Smart Partner since 2005, has had a BC Hydro-sponsored energy manager for 16 years, and has delivered 12 GWh of energy savings since 2005.
Electric boilers will take over the lion’s share of UVic's district energy heating supply when they come online in 2026, and are expected to reduce the district energy facility's carbon emissions by about 65%.
How an aging district energy network got an upgrade
UVic's district energy network dates back to the 1960s, when a single heating plant served just one science building, one classroom building, the library, and the student union building. Over the decades, three additional heating plants were installed, and all were replaced in 2019 by a new natural gas facility designed to be ready for future low-carbon conversion.
"We got financing and support from BC Hydro for a campus decarbonization study, and without their help, we would not have proceeded to the design and implementation of the district energy electric boilers," says Adams. "The study allowed us to look at the entire campus in a single setting… and to develop a road map based on BC Government mandates for greenhouse gas reduction as well as our own internal policies."
That roadmap led to a practical choice: rather than replace all natural gas capacity, UVic would install smaller electric boilers sized to fit within the campus's existing electrical supply, avoiding costly service upgrades.
"We'll have enough electrical capacity to service new construction on campus, but the electric boilers are big enough to hit our targets of a 50% reduction in CO₂ emissions from 2010 levels by 2030," says Adams.
With a nudge from students, UVic goes big on sustainability
A heady cocktail of government mandates, strong UVic decarbonization goals, and vocal student advocacy, has put the university on an aggressive path to sustainability.
The Engineering and Computer Science/High Lab project is loaded with state-of-the-art features in large part due to a UVic civil engineering department goal to be the greenest in Canada. And UVic's new dorms – Cheko'nien House and Sngequ House – are one of the largest capital projects (over 32,000 square metres of floor area) in the university's history.
The two new dorms feature 783 total student spaces plus the Cove dining hall, which is open to the entire campus. The project features mass timber construction, an electrified kitchen, triple-glazed windows with strategic solar shading, heat recovery ventilation and electric air source heat pumps and other measures that help reduce GHGs for hot water heating by 88%.
UVic's clean energy work is guided by its Climate and Sustainability Action Plan 2030, an ambitious strategy that values Indigenous ways of knowing and seeks climate-positive operations by 2050. Students and staff are on board with those efforts.
"UVic was ranked number 1 in Canada for Climate Action by the 2025 Times Higher Education Impact Ratings, with strong support from our students to take aggressive steps towards decarbonization," says Adams. "Our staff also take leadership through our staff sustainability network."
Through BC Hydro's Energy Wise Network and initiatives like Green Labs, UVic works to build energy awareness across its community.
UVic takes leadership role beyond the campus
Adams also helped launch the first Vancouver Island Energy Leadership Conference, bringing together more than 80 participants from municipalities, post-secondary institutions, industry, and government to share solutions on decarbonization.
With projects like district energy transformation, green building leadership, and solar investments, UVic is showing how a large, complex campus can move quickly toward net zero while inspiring its students, partners, and community.
"We have a huge advantage in B.C. with hydroelectricity," says Adams. "We have some of the cheapest electricity rates in North America, and it's very clean. Oddly enough, the low rates can make the business case for energy efficiency projects more challenging here – I sometimes joke to my staff that if you can run an energy management program in B.C., you can probably make it as an energy manager anywhere.
"Energy conservation remains a priority, and the availability of clean energy allows us to also focus on electrification for decarbonization."