Case Study: Decarbonizing Coquitlam Centre Mall

Case Study: Decarbonizing Coquitlam Centre Mall

Capturing Waste Heat with a Heat Recovery Chiller

Coquitlam Centre is a mall, owned and operated by Morguard Corporation, with a gross leasable area of 86,400 m² (930,000 ft²). In January 2016, a Trane RTWD heat recovery chiller was installed to capture heat energy that was previously being rejected through cooling towers. The re-captured energy preheats water that is used to heat the common areas of the mall, thereby reducing the gas required by the boilers and the energy consumption of the cooling tower. Under ideal conditions, the mall’s common areas can be heated solely by the heat recovery chiller if the outside temperature is approximately 2°C or higher. Below this outside temperature, the boilers top up the heat in the hydronic heating system. Since the implementation of Coquitlam Centre’s heat recovery system, the system has resulted in benefits for both the mall and the environment.  These benefits include a 70% reduction in gas consumption, 4% reduction in electricity costs, 35% lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and a simple payback of less than five years. The project has allowed Morguard to make significant advances towards its goal of net-zero energy use for its portfolio by 2035. This case study focuses on the design considerations, the energy and emissions results, as well as a financial analysis of the project.