Cornwall Electric has helped usher in the "Next Generation of Heating" an innovative new system that turns waste energy into heat for resale. 

The Gerald Parisien Community Energy Facility is an environmentally-conscious project that is among the first of its kind in North America. Run by Cornwall District Heating Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cornwall Electric, the plant delivers 5.5 megawatts of electrical power to Cornwall Electric, helping lower the utility's dependence on outside suppliers, which in turn helps to maintain Cornwall's low cost electricity rates.  But the real advantage of the plant is how it deals with waste energy. About 60% of the energy created in the generation process is in the form of excess heat that is traditionally allowed to escape. The Cornwall plant harnesses the waste energy to heat water which, in turn, is piped into the community to heat two hospitals, six schools 2 senior residences, a municipal pool and five other buildings. 

Construction of the facility started in the spring of 1994 and the first heat was delivered just 211 days later. Named after Gerald Parisien, a former mayor and Chairman of the Cornwall Electric Board of Directors, the facility sits quietly in a well established residential neighbourhood. The innovative design of the building, complete with sound absorbing triple masonry walls structure and creative landscaping allows for a quiet conversation mere steps away from the front door, masking the operation of the state of the art machinery. 

Using two Wartsila natural-gas-fired reciprocating engines and two high efficiency boilers, the plant produces 5.5 megawatts of electricity and 11 megawatts of heat. This combination of engines, boilers and heat recovery, from several points in the system, helps to raise the efficiency of this plant in the winter to 90%. The system used by Cornwall results in 40% of the fuel energy being converted into electricity and 50% of the fuel energy being recovered as useful heat. Conventional fossil fuel power stations recover only 35% of their energy as electricity and waste the remaining energy by dumping it into the environment in the form of heat.

The electrical energy generated is fed into the Cornwall Electric grid through an adjacent existing substation. Ten kilometres of underground insulated pipe deliver heat in the form of hot water to thirteen institutions over a 5 kilometre route. Clients include hospitals, schools, sports facilities, a library and multi-storied residential units.

Quiet, clean and maintenance free heat exchangers, have replaced large, inefficient and sometimes outdated fuel burning boilers in these institutions. The retrofits, complete with new controls, provide for a more comfortable as well as cost effective heating system. Careful planning and close cooperation between contractors and on-site staff allowed changeovers to take place with all facilities in full operation. This is an absolute necessity when dealing with hospitals, seniors' residences and other buildings requiring uninterrupted service.

Customers are able to contract for the supply of heat for 20 years at predictable rates that are less expensive than the alternatives. In most cases the comfort level is superior to conventional systems because of the steady nature of the supply. At the same time because the customers are using a product that would otherwise be waste, they are contributing to sustainable development and the protection of the environment. This project has to-date resulted in the total elimination of the emissions from over 15 larger boilers.

The construction of this facility provides cost effective electric energy to Cornwall and an economical source of heat to the District Energy customers, in addition to considerable environmental benefits for the community as a whole. In the first year of operation the plant has garnered world wide attention, and has been toured by delegations from Japan, China, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, the United States, as well as other communities from across Canada.