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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
One of the biggest ongoing policy challenges the city is dealing with is the cost of energy.

City energy co-ordinator Remy Gervais is looking at finding ways to cut energy costs for the city. - Danielle Sachs/NNSL photo

City energy co-ordinator Remy Gervais is front and center in this effort.

Gervais was hired into the role last October after working as a city finance employee between 2006 and 2009. He is tasked with finding cost-effective and environmentally-friendly ways to consume energy in the city.

The role, previously held by Mark Henry, was created from recommendations made in the Yellowknife Community Energy Plan, which was drawn up in 2004 with an aim to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions from municipal operations and from the community.

"One particular aspect that I am interested in is with the cost," said Gervais of his job. "Energy costs for the city has increased 110 per cent over the last eight years and is now the second largest (operations and maintenance) expense that the city has and that's only after salaries and benefits. So, having an extra pair of eyes on what we can do with those and switch our fuel sources and find some cheaper sources of energy and reduce use, it is very helpful for an organization this size."

Gervais also plays a big role on the city's community energy planning committee, which implements the energy plan's goals. Other committee members include representatives from the Arctic Energy Alliance, the city's school boards and the GNWT.

The city has faced an uphill battle in a few of its past attempts at alternative energy. The city's Con Mine district energy project, which aimed to heat 39 downtown buildings, was scrapped after residents rejected the city's request to borrow up to $49 million in a 2011 referendum.

A smaller-scale district energy project for 13 municipal buildings, devised late last year, also failed to get off the ground when an application for $12 million in Clean Energy Funding from Natural Resources Canada was rejected in January.

Gervais said there are lots of other ways that the city can find savings.

"It is hard to say," he said when asked if he was disappointed about the series of setbacks that the municipality has faced in finding ways to get a district energy system off the ground. "I think it just means that we have to just do our projects differently now. If that funding isn't there then we have to find it elsewhere. What the studies are looking at right now is much smaller in scale than what was proposed to NRCan."

The city is about to release two major studies this month that may lead to two smaller, more manageable projects in particular. The first study, by consultants at Stantec, will look at how to use cardboard and other dry biomass material from the landfill as a heating source. The other study, by KO Energy, examines how used vegetable oil can be turned into fuel. Gervais said both could lead to creating yet another district energy system, but one that is more concentrated in the Multiplex area and be easier to handle than past concepts.

"With the solid waste facility, one of the things we are looking at is cardboard," he said. "We have a lot of it and we pay a lot to ship it down south. Overall, it doesn't really save energy or greenhouse gases to do that recycling but if we found a way to use material here, then you would start seeing those savings on greenhouse gases and energy. It does, in any case, save us landfill real estate and that in itself is a good reason to be doing it. If you have a local use for it, it is even better. "

Gervais said used vegetable oil has a high potential to be useful as an energy source. After the studies are complete, the city will have a clearer sense of the amount that is actually being put into the landfill, what kind of boiler technologies would be needed and what costs may be required to have a small-scale district energy system using this material. Gervais said he is also looking forward to learning from the studies how much the city's energy use could be reduced, as well.

"There is a potential to use some of our wood and cardboard at our city facilities," said Gervais. "I think it would make a lot of sense to connect a lot of our facilities, much like at the pool, and do something similar at the Multiplex area using the biomass we have here in Yellowknife. It is an option that the city might want to consider."

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