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Gibsons to decommission geo-utility serving Parkland

The Town of Gibsons is going to decommission the Gibsons District Energy Utility (GDEU) over the next three years.
parkland
Crews installing the first phase of the Gibsons District Energy Utility. Council decided March 3 to decommission the system.

The Town of Gibsons is going to decommission the Gibsons District Energy Utility (GDEU) over the next three years.

A statement on the Town’s website says property owners in the Parkland neighbourhood, which is the only area of Gibsons served by the utility, will be compensated for the remaining life of their heat pumps as of Sept. 30, 2023, the final day of planned operation for the utility.

The GDEU project was launched in 2009 and was touted as the first municipally owned utility of its kind in Canada to “offer the citizens an alternative, clean energy source.”  Funding for the $993,000 project came from the Island Coastal Economic Trust, gas taxes and the province’s Innovative Clean Energy Fund as well as a $168,527 investment from the Town.

Currently, the utility supports 58 homes in the Parkland neighbourhood.

A stand-alone geothermal utility also serves the RCMP Building on Sunnycrest Road. That system will continue to operate.

The path toward council’s decision to shut down the utility started in the winter of 2016-17, when the geothermal systems suffered a serious breakdown that required an expensive retrofit to add gas boilers to supplement the geothermal exchangers.

It also led to significant costs to the homeowners in Parkland Phase 1 and 2, who were bound by covenant to connect to the system.

After a review of the GDEU, council voted to exempt Phase 3 and Phase 4 of the subdivision from the requirement to connect “until operational improvements could be made to the system.”

As late as last November, the Town was telling Parkland residents that a new business plan for the utility was being drafted, but on March 3 of this year councillors voted to decommission the system at an in-camera session. Mayor Bill Beamish, a Parkland proeprty owner, recused himself from all discussions and votes on the future of the GDEU to avoid appearance of a conflict.

Concerns about public gatherings during the COVID pandemic led to the Town cancelling a planned April 2 information meeting on the decommissioning.

In a March 31 letter to the affected residents, director of infrastructure services Dave Newman said three options for the future of the GDEU were considered: expanding the system to provide service to a larger area, maintaining the current service area only, or decommissioning the system.

“It was determined that expanding the system was dependent on factors that were outside of the Town’s control, the most significant being the pace of development within a viable service area,” Newman wrote. “In addition, some of the challenges with the system would still exist, particularly with the potential cost and disruption of an undetected leak.”

Newman said keeping the current service areas would “require steady rate increases with the same challenges that exist with the system now.”

Under the decommissioning plan, the Town will keep the GDEU operational until Sept. 30, 2023 and give homeowners the option to disconnect from the system and switch to an alternate heat source before that deadline.

The Town said it will compensate owners based on a 2023 estimated replacement cost of $6,367 for forced air systems and $7,959 for in-floor heating systems and those who’ve already switched will be eligible for compensation as well.