Port Moody pauses work on its Moody Centre neighbourhood energy utility plan

Port Moody is pausing plans for a neighbourhood energy utility (NEU) in Moody Centre after a new business case found the financial benefits are currently too small to justify moving ahead. Council voted unanimously on Sept. 29 to stop further work in the short term, while leaving open the possibility of reviving the project if development conditions, costs or technology change. Coun. Samantha Agtarap supported shelving the plan for now, saying it could be revived if market conditions become more favourable. She described the idea as something the city could keep “on the stove,” ready to act if conditions change and opportunities arise.

The city will continue to require developments in the Moody Centre transit-oriented development area to be NEU-ready and to connect to a future system if one is built. Council also authorized an application for up to $30,000 from the Green Municipal Fund. If the application succeeds, the money would fund connection guidelines, a connection policy and a service-area bylaw.

An NEU is a centralized system that supplies heat to multiple buildings, rather than having each building rely entirely on its own heating equipment. The proposed project would recover heat from a Metro Vancouver sewer main to provide district heating for developments in Moody Centre. The business case assessed three ways to develop the system over a 25-year buildout.

The city’s original “base scenario” estimated $7 million in savings compared with individual building-scale systems. About $5.5 million in additional city costs would reduce that advantage to $1.5 million. The costs include staff and consulting expenses, along with the opportunity cost of using the city-owned property at 3016 Murray St. for an energy centre. The property is assessed at $5.28 million. Staff said the remaining savings were relatively small compared with risks such as slower development, rising costs, staffing needs and uncertainty about sewer-heat availability.

Coun. Callan Morrison said the $1.5-million margin was not enough to make the project worthwhile under current conditions. He said that once staffing, the site’s cost and the loss of its future use for other purposes were considered, proceeding did not make sense at this time. Morrison also cited uncertainty about Moody Centre development: the size and timing of future projects could differ from earlier expectations and change the energy demand available to support an NEU. That uncertainty recurred in council’s discussion.

Coun. Haven Lurbiecki asked how much the city had spent studying the proposal. Staff said about $470,000 had been spent from the pre-feasibility stage through completion of the business case. Lurbiecki supported the concept of producing local energy but said the project had become too dependent on assumptions about the scale of future development in Moody Centre. She said the money spent from the climate action fund could have gone elsewhere. She also said the work had produced useful information and suggested exploring other possible uses, including additional businesses downtown or Eagle Ridge Hospital. Staff have met with the hospital about the possibility of eventually joining the network. Further discussions could take place as the hospital develops its master plans over the coming years.

Other councillors defended the study costs as an investment that could help Port Moody move more quickly if the economics improve. Coun. Amy Lubik said the work leaves the city prepared if an NEU becomes feasible, and that the system could have different applications as Moody Centre evolves. Coun. Diana Dilworth said uncertainty in local and global markets made a pause appropriate, while defending the work completed. She said the studies were a strong investment in the community’s energy future whether an NEU is built in 10, 15 or 25 years.

Mayor Meghan Lahti, who said she had been cautious about the proposal from the beginning, agreed the current business case did not justify proceeding but said the studies were worthwhile. She said the work would put the city in a position to act when needed. Under the business case, the proposed utility would be wholly city-owned and delivered and operated through a long-term agreement with a private utility partner. It was envisioned as eventually switching to sewer heat as its primary energy source once Moody Centre had sufficient development.

For now, the staff recommendation preserves that possibility without committing Port Moody to build the system. The city will revisit the NEU if its economics, technology or development conditions change.