The City of Nanaimo partnered with BC Hydro to introduce a cleaner, more energy-efficient way to clean water in their public pools.
A new way to treat pool water
In the middle of winter, indoor pools are often the only place that most people in B.C. want to go swimming. So it's the perfect time for the City of Nanaimo to introduce a new way to clean the water in their public pools, using an innovative chemical process for more energy efficient filtering.
Until recently, Nanaimo's two main pools, Nanaimo Aquatic Centre (known locally as NAC) and the Beban Park Pool were using liquid chlorine, hydrochloric acid and UV sterilization as their primary cleaning approach.
Emil Bock, the City of Nanaimo's corporate energy manager explains: "UV lighting is still the industry standard, but it consumes a lot of energy, it's high maintenance and it creates indoor air quality issues."
Two new chemicals were introduced: a flocculant that causes microscopic impurities to clump together for easy filtering, along with a disinfectant that improves water clarity. This reduces the need for chlorine and acid, eliminates the need for UV sterilizers, and results in significant energy savings and lower replacement costs.
Mike Bryson, Nanaimo's Deputy Director of Civic Facilities, adds: "With the new system, we now have sensors in the pools to determine how clean the water is. As it gets cleaner, the pumps ramp down. And then if the water becomes dirty — for instance, if we have a school party — they'll ramp back up again as needed, reducing energy consumption."
Floating a new idea
While Nanaimo had budgeted for asset renewals, the Operations team saw an opportunity for improvement: "We started talking about how we could make our pools more efficient and it all meshed together," says Mike. "Emil really worked hard on the energy efficiency part, while we added all the components and chemicals to ensure he had all the data he needed to talk to BC Hydro."
"There wasn’t an existing incentive stream for the water treatment system," says Emil. "But Meaghan, our Key Accounts Manager, identified funding available through BC Hydro's Program Enabled stream. She helped walk us through the submission process and outlined exactly what their engineering team needed."
"Once we had our funding in place and had everything decided, we were able to implement the project pretty easily during our annual pool shut down," says Mike.
Blowing efficiency targets out of the water
With the system now up and running, what kind of savings can Emil expect? "The new water treatment system combined with the variable speed drives are projected to save 489,000 kWh annually between both sites," he says. That's a significant saving — enough to power around 44 B.C. homes.
"We're estimating a 64% equipment energy reduction from the variable speed drives and water treatment equipment," says Emil. "This project was a lot bigger than we expected in the end and it’s blown my energy efficiency target out of the water!"
Cleaner, more energy efficient pool water is just the beginning. Other projects Emil and his team are reviewing range from HVAC renewals to recommissioning buildings for optimum operation through BC Hydro's continuous optimization program.
For now though, he's very happy with the results at Beban and NAC: "It makes our pools so much more enjoyable and when people come and see this kind of stuff happening, it really does have an impact on the community."
Interested in finding energy efficient opportunities at your organization?
To learn more about how BC Hydro can help you find more energy efficient opportunities for your organization, contact your Key Account Manager or Regional Energy Manager, or call 604 522 4713 in the Lower Mainland or 1 866 522 4713 elsewhere in B.C.