Energy efficiency: a daily concern at the Québec City Convention Centre

Energy performance is a high priority for the Québec City Convention Centre’s, so there was no hesitation about answering BOMA Québec’s call to action to commit to the Building Energy Challenge (BEC), a friendly competition for Québec’s commercial, institutional, and multi-residential buildings to get greener by reducing energy consumption and GHG emissions over a four-year period.

It was a perfect fit with the values of the Convention Centre, where improving energy efficiency has always been a going concern, especially in the new millennium. Its work in that area are part of its sustainability vision and have brought in many awards and certifications.*

The Convention Centre team puts a lot of care into energy management, which has benefited the environment as well as the bottom line. It has undertaken many energy-saving initiatives, including replacing incandescent lighting with LEDs that are 75% more efficient and taking part in in Hydro-Québec’s, energy provider for the Québec province, peak-demand load-shedding program, which in 2017–2018 saved the Centre $50,000.

A smart building

The Québec City Convention Centre is a smart building, thanks to its Honeywell EBI operational control system equipped with thousands of sensors that measure temperature fluctuations in real time, fine-tuning and modulating energy use to match occupancy, traffic, and user needs.

Main electromechanical specifications:

•  8,339 kW central heating plant
• 1,500-ton central cooling plant
•  342,844 L/s fresh air intake
•  120 ventilator units
• 9,992 control points

Equipment updates

The team was aware that most of the Convention Centre’s equipment dates back to the original construction, so it hired an energy efficiency firm to conduct a study of the boiler, equipment, and HVAC system. The results of their detailed study and recommendations will be used by Convention Centre experts to draw up a ten-year, multi-phase plan that includes modernizing the boiler. GHG emissions will be cut, as will energy and operating costs.

The human underpinnings of technology

All those advanced electromechanical systems and equipment go a ways toward explaining the level of comfort expected and enjoyed by our guests, but the real secret ingredient is our seasoned, multidisciplinary teams. At every moment our property management team and structural maintenance partner Opsis are involved in an elaborate behind-the-scenes ballet to keep the building shipshape, regulate indoor comfort, and maintain irreproachable air quality.

Comfort as the foundation of the user experience

The Québec City Convention Centre has been open since 1996, hosting an average of over 200,000 guests and more than 200 events of all sizes each year. There are 500,000 square feet of room and other floor space to heat, cool, and light in ways that vary with the time of year, occupancy, and energy requirements of whatever is going on. Energy management is thus part of the foundation of the user experience, closely bound up with the comfort of everyone inside the building.

*Awards and certifications

•  2003 ÉcoGeste Award in the building management category for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and outstanding energy use results
•  2004 Stellaris Award in the energy efficiency category for smart energy management
• 2011 LEED-EB Certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for existing building, Silver level
• 2010 and 2013 BOMA BESt, Level 3 Certification
• 2015 LEED® Canada-CI (commercial interiors), Gold level
• 2022 GHG Target Achievement Award, Building Energy Challenge, Platinum Level