Opinion: Creative Energy will transform Vancouver’s energy landscape for decades to come
Written for Daily Hive Urbanized by Samson Tam, who is the director of development at Creative Energy, a low-carbon district energy company headquartered in Vancouver.
Every quarter-hour and on the hour, the steam clock in Gastown, beloved by Vancouver tourists and locals alike, whistles and blows its steam.
Built in 1977 by Raymond Saunders and Doug Smith, its original design utilized a steam engine, later converted to electric in 1986, while retaining the steam for its whistling purposes.
Nonetheless, the steam clock stands the test of time – working dependably and diligently in the background.
So where does the steam come from?
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The answer to this has to do with another piece of important underground infrastructure that has been working quietly, reliably, and safely for the last 55 years.
It is the downtown district energy steam network, owned and operated by Creative Energy. It supplies heat to many landmarks you may know, such as Rogers Arena, BC Place Stadium, Parq Vancouver, The Post, and St. Paul’s Hospital, as well as over 200 other buildings in the downtown Vancouver peninsula across 45 million sq ft of real estate. But how did it come to be?
Gastown Steam Clock on Water Street. (Stories In Light/Shutterstock)
In the 1960s, downtown Vancouver grappled with severe smog and pollution issues. Emissions from buildings burning coal and fuel oil for heating created the perfect conditions for air pollution. Local entrepreneurs recognized an opportunity to solve this by embracing the best fuel source at the time, natural gas.
By 1965, this group built a centralized steam plant with a vision to deliver heat to Vancouver’s downtown core through an interconnected underground piping network.
The first heat delivery to Hotel Vancouver in 1968 marked the official establishment of Central Heat, later renamed Creative Energy. From 1968 onwards, Central Heat’s network grew, ultimately replacing over 600 individual chimney stacks across Vancouver transitioning the community off coal and fuel oil and providing affordable and dependable community-scale heating with near-perfect reliability.
Downtown Vancouver skyline from False Creek, 1965. (City of Vancouver Archives)
The modern downtown Vancouver skyline. (Alphonse Tran/Shutterstock)
Over the span of my career as a professional engineer, designing mechanical systems on a variety of building construction projects under the sustainability umbrella, I’ve dedicated my work to furthering sustainability.
In pursuit of the decarbonization of buildings, I’ve worked on sustainable projects including those that are LEED Platinum, Passive House, and Net-Zero. After furthering my education in business at Sauder, I found myself looking for a new opportunity that matched my passion and a newly developed skillset. How can I help align two of the largest societal challenges to point in the same direction: affordability and climate action? The last place I thought I’d work was Creative Energy, which I perceived as a sleepy steam district energy utility.
Surprising even myself, I joined Creative Energy after I witnessed the transformative power of district energy, hailed by the United Nations as a “secret ingredient for climate action and human health.” I realized Creative Energy’s unique position and ability to transform our city and the rest was history.
As we strive for a sustainable future, the urgency of decarbonizing our cities can’t be overemphasized. The focus is often on new construction and state-of-the-art designs, but the reality is that 99% of the existing buildings are not new or under construction. If we are to truly embrace a greener future, we must also confront the challenge of decarbonizing existing buildings by working collectively and on the community scale, where district energy can make the biggest impact.
While it’s easy to buy a new car or the latest phone, large infrastructure systems can’t be easily upgraded or replaced — it takes a long-term view that spans decades and a tremendous investment of time, money, and effort. While Creative Energy’s steam system has been in place for over 50 years, modernizing this vital infrastructure to help decarbonize both new and existing buildings will take a monumental collective effort.
This change is already happening. Creative Energy is taking the next step in its evolution by utilizing the cleanest fuel we have now: renewable electricity from BC Hydro.
To provide electricity to the project, BC Hydro will build a new dedicated 1.2 km underground transmission line from its substation in Chinatown to the new Creative Energy plant, where Creative Energy can then access wholesale electricity, unlocking affordable power through economies of scale. This will allow the first phase of Creative Energy’s modernization and decarbonization, which is currently under construction, adding a new substation, high-voltage electric boilers, and high-efficiency gas-fired boilers into a seismically upgraded plant space.
Construction progress on the new Creative Energy steam plant at 720 Beatty Street, Vancouver, as of October 13, 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
Artistic rendering of the new Creative Energy plant at 720 Beatty Street, Vancouver. (Creative Energy)
Artistic rendering of the new Creative Energy plant at 720 Beatty Street, Vancouver. (Creative Energy)
This new facility will help support BC’s climate goals and reduce over 38,000 tonnes of GHG emissions annually, making it one of the largest fuel switch projects in Canada while further improving resilience to climate and economic events. Upon its completion, current and new customers will be able to decarbonize their buildings overnight, without disruption to their operations.
Future phases will modernize downtown Vancouver’s heating infrastructure by fully transitioning away from fossil fuels over the next decade. As a publicly regulated utility, this plan will be submitted to the BC Utilities Commission in 2024 as part of our Long-Term Resource Plan (LTRP) and will undergo significant consultation with our customers, stakeholders and the community at large to serve the public interest and balance affordability, resiliency, and sustainability.
Our plan will simultaneously improve data analytics for customers, cyber security, and of course, safety. Front and centre to these efforts will be to convert our 15 km-long distribution network from steam to hot water, which will not only reduce water consumption and improve energy efficiency but will also unlock the ability to tap into additional renewable energy resources such as waste-heat recovery from buildings or deep geothermal.
Given the need to decarbonize buildings and the instrumental role of district energy in accelerating climate action, Creative Energy is also developing several new low-carbon district energy systems across North America using an array of different renewable technologies such as geo-exchange, ocean exchange, sewer-energy-exchange, waste-heat recovery, and more.
We have over a dozen new systems being developed or in early-stage operations across British Columbia, Ontario, and Washington State. Large-scale master plans, healthcare campuses, and post-secondary environments are perfectly suited for district energy systems.
Projects such as the Sen̓áḵw development in Vancouver, Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, and Swedish Hospital in Seattle, are excellent examples of projects we’re currently developing that exemplify the immense power of district energy to decarbonize both new and existing buildings.
September 2022 artistic rendering of the refined detailed design of Senakw: perspective looking northwest from Granville Street near West 4th Avenue. (Revery Architecture/Kasian/Tandem Studios/Squamish Nation)
Artistic rendering of Swedish Hospital in Seattle. (Providence Swedish)
The role of Creative Energy in shaping Vancouver’s low-carbon future can’t be overstated.
Creative Energy is not merely a provider of heat for many of our buildings; it is a driving force propelling our city for over half a century to the present day, and towards a sustainable, innovative, and economically viable future. As we face the combined challenges of climate action, climate adaptation, and affordability, the often-overlooked infrastructure beneath our streets is poised to play a crucial role in fueling Vancouver’s growth into the next 50 years and helping it become the greenest city in the world.
In collaboration with our customers, regulators, and policymakers, Creative Energy and our downtown Vancouver network are not just prepared to join the movement of global cities like Boston, Toronto, Copenhagen, and New York — all of which are using district energy as a platform for economical decarbonization — but to take a leading role in this global initiative.
As I look back a decade from now, I know I will see a decarbonized future across our cities in BC and will take pride that I have been part of a company that has been able to directly lead this future. Acting as a green catalyst, Creative Energy will unlock decades of sustainable growth through widely accessible, affordable, low-carbon district energy, working underground quietly, and tirelessly to serve people in our cities. This is the legacy I’d like to leave my kids: a cleaner, better city for future generations to come.
What happens to our beloved steam clock once we’ve phased out the steam? Well, I’m sure we’ll figure out a Creative solution for it.
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