Product category:
Drives, motors and power transmission, couplings, clutches
News Release from: Lenze-ACTech | Subject: VFD drives
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 06 February 2007
Drives provide economy and control
Using water from the bottom of lake Ontario is an environmentally cool way to chill down downtown Toronto office buildings and keep up with consumer demands.
Using water from the bottom of lake Ontario is an environmentally cool way to chill down downtown Toronto office buildings and keep up with consumer demands A recently completed project in Toronto, Canada, is a great example of what can happen when all the right components are in place
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 31 May 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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Increasing energy efficiency, lowering costs and protecting the environment while satisfying today's comfort-demanding consumer is no small task.
It requires a fundamental commitment from government, business and the community, and it needs to rely on solid, proven technology.
The key to the project is icy water drawn from the lake, and put to work chilling the water used to air condition downtown buildings.
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Water at 4 C (39 F) is taken from the bottom of lake Ontario, sent to the Toronto Island Water Filtration Plant to be purified, and then forwarded to a heat transfer station.
The treated water is utilised to lower the temperature of water used for air conditioning in downtown buildings - afterwards it flows into the city's drinking water pipes.
The project was initiated by Enwave District Energy ., an organisation owned 43% by the city of Toronto, and 57% by the OMERS pension fund (the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System).
It's already at work, cooling over 20 buildings in downtown Toronto, including the Toronto Dominion Centre, the Air Canada Centre, and the Royal Bank Plaza, and there are plans to increase this list in the very near future.
The short answer is, because every single element works the way it's supposed to.
The longer answer addresses the different components of the innovative system.
It begins with three high-density Polyethylene pipes, 5 kilometers (3.10 miles) long, that reach 83 meters (272 feet) down the bottom of Lake Ontario to draw the icy water and send it to purification systems at the Toronto Island Water Filtration Plant.
Here the water is screened, pre-chlorinated, filtered, disinfected, fluoridated and post-chlorinated.
It continues with the pumps at the heat exchange station, the butterfly valves that control the flow and volume of the water, and the variable frequency drives that operate the valves...
Every single link in this chain was chosen to perform, and it works at top performance.
Giving an example of the importance of every detail, Pat Cimek, area manager for E.S.
Fox, the construction and fabrication specialists hired by Enwave, comments: "In our type of work, there's no such thing as a small detail; everything we use we do because we know it will perform for us." An integrated company that provides a single source for industrial construction and fabrication, E.S.
Fox undertakes total-responsibility projects, providing a combination of engineering, procurement and construction skills.
Cimek mentions they expect 99.999% reliability on all the components they employ on their systems.
When it was time to spec the VFDs for operating the Dezurik AWWA butterfly valves that control the volume and flow of water, Cimek, his team of consulting engineers and the Purchasing department, turned to E.S.
Fox's long-time supplier, Sterling Power Systems.
"As a company, they offered us the advantages of trust and comfort; and we know they can program and start-up the drives on site," explains Cimek.
"and we agreed with Sterling Powers recommendation of the AC Technology drives based on their proven quality and performance while remaining competitively priced." A couple of things stand out right away.
One is the savings factor.
It is estimated that the project will save 59 megawatts of capacity to the province of Ontario, which can be translated into the electricity needed to power the air conditioning systems in 12,000 homes.
If that's not enough, there's another benefit - this alternative source of energy is an environmentalist's dream.
It has been estimated that air pollution reduction from the system will be the equivalent of taking between 4,000 to 8,000 cars a year off the road.
Right from the beginning, it was a plan that made business sense.
It started by combining the needs and wants of consumers with overall conservancy objectives.
It continued with the development of a system that's designed around available nature's resources, in this case, chilly water from the lake; involving all the parties in the planning and implementation and taking advantage of proven, cost-effective and reliable technology. Request a free brochure from Lenze-ACTech ...
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