Enwave Energy Corporation has commissioned its new Green Heat Plant during a ceremony at the Pearl Street Energy Centre in Toronto.

The milestone is the latest step toward enabling Enwave to provide low-carbon heating to Toronto’s district energy system.

The plant has been designed to reduce its electricity demand during peak times while continuing to provide reliable, low-carbon heating and cooling – demonstrating the ability of district energy to enable the decarbonization and electrification of Toronto’s buildings while making more efficient use of Ontario’s electricity infrastructure.

Enwave began development of the plant as an addition to the Pearl Street Energy Centre in 2018, initially breaking ground in May 2023.

The 60-year-old Pearl Street Energy Centre has been updated with a three-story addition, including entirely new building façade. Once fully operational, the plant will have capacity of 3,600 tons of cooling and 62,000 MBH of heating. The electrified heating generated from the plant will be capable of displacing carbon emissions of up to 11,600 tCO2e, as compared to traditional steam to hot water energy generation – which is the equivalent carbon reduction associated with converting 10 million square feet of existing office space from traditional boilers to low-carbon heating.

The plant will leverage waste heat from Enwave’s Deep Lake Water Cooling system customers – including data centres, hospitals, scientific research facilities and lab spaces – which is then upgraded through the electrified heat pump into hot water.

The method allows the plant to provide heat to other district-connected customers, while potentially reducing new electricity peak generation, distribution and transmission infrastructure that would otherwise be required, if heating was provided by stand-alone electrified solutions.

The new plant will have a total electricity demand of approximately 6MW when it is serving its full thermal load and has been designed with the potential to reduce its peak electricity demand by up to 6MW.

“The commissioning of the Enwave Green Heat Plant at our Pearl Street Energy Centre is a great example of how Enwave can contribute to the electrification of the economy more efficiently and cost effectively for all stakeholders in Toronto,” said Enwave CEO Carlyle Coutinho.