Scotiabank Centre Scores Big with Thermal Storage Solution

The Challenge

Scotiabank Centre (SBC), the largest multipurpose facility in Atlantic Canada, is located in downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia. The centre resides directly across the street from the National Historic Site, Citadel Hill. Originally a meeting place for the area’s indigenous inhabitants, the Mi’kmaq, Citadel Hill was first fortified in 1749, the year that the British developed the town of Halifax. Today Citadel Hill remains one of Canada’s most visited sites.

Known for hosting major national and international on and off-ice sporting events and performances, Scotiabank Centre can seat up to 10,500 fans. Critical to the venue’s success is consistent, reliable indoor environmental conditions for everything from curling matches to large concerts—while also maintaining exceptional rink ice quality for all on‑ice events. Scotiabank Centre is managed and operated by Events East Group, a special purpose government agency created as part of a government partnership between the Province of Nova Scotia and Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM).

Unfortunately, the centre’s critical infrastructure systems—including the HVAC system and the arena ice plant refrigeration equipment, were failing and at end of life. The two systems included a sizeable chiller plant with large, chilled water holding tanks. These tanks were leaking chilled water, the systems lacked energy efficiency and required increasing repair costs

These systems also required significant maintenance work to keep them running, drawing down staff productivity. Centre managers wanted to update these systems with more energy-efficient solutions featuring a low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerant to replace their ammonia-based systems.

In addition to easier operation and maintenance while providing consistent reliability, Scotiabank Centre needed a sustainable solution that would align with HalifACT, a transformational plan to achieve net zero municipal operations by 2050.

The Solution

Events East staff reached out to Trane to discuss their needs and potential options based on a 20-year service relationship maintaining the centre’s Trane chillers and a long-term relationship with HRM. Early in the consultant review phase, Trane shared success stories featuring ice thermal storage solutions to help reduce operation costs through increased energy efficiency and lower electrical demand, while also reducing up-front costs through reduced chiller plant sizing.

These success stories showcased Opteon™ by Chemours, an R513a low-GWP refrigerant a sustainable refrigerant alternative for ice refrigeration chiller systems.

“Trane offers industry-leading experience with both thermal ice storage and recreational ice surfaces and we knew that using Opteon would be a good fit for the centre’s needs,” said Trane Account Manager, Kirk Fraser. “We were pleased that city leaders agreed and asked Trane to propose a customized solution for their needs.”

After investigation and discussions with their engineering representative and based on their previous work done with Trane, HRM leaders agreed to move from chilled water thermal storage to ice thermal storage.

“They elected to install Trane’s largest thermal ice storage system in Canada, which is also the first Trane ice thermal energy storage solution in Atlantic Canada and one of the few ice thermal storage systems in the region,” said Fraser.

Multiple benefits: Ice Thermal Storage

These ice thermal storage systems are virtually maintenance free and offer a useful lifecycle of 30+ years. They also are 99 percent reusable or recyclable. Ice thermal storage enables greater energy storage in a smaller footprint than chilled water thermal energy storage. Chilled water installations are sized anywhere from 8 to 10 times larger than ice tanks.

The resulting HVAC ice thermal energy storage system includes two low-temperature and ice-making Trane chillers, CALMAC^® ice storage tanks, and features Opteon R513a refrigerant. The Ice thermal storage system is charged overnight, outside of peak energy and cooling demand to avoid higher peak energy demand pricing.

In addition to funding from HRM, funding from all levels of government helped make the upgrades possible. Signficiant funding was provided from the federal/provincial Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program.

The Results

These new highly efficient energy-saving systems, which align with the sustainability goals set forth by HalifACT, are saving the equivalent of 14,000 tons of CO₂ over the project life. The new systems provide a more consistent environment for the ice.

“The new plant is so much more reliable than our previous solution, it’s easier to operate and maintain and it helps us conserve energy,” said Events East Group Chief Engineer, Dave Romo. “This has proven to be a true win-win solution.”

The systems are centrally and electronically controlled with variable speed drives designed to enhance energy efficiency, reduce water usage, and help reduce labour. The systems are centrally controlled by a new building automation system designed to enhance energy efficiency, reduce water usage and reduce the amount of manual operator intervention from the previous system.

Centre leaders are pleased that the centre features an energy-efficient, sustainability-focused solution that provides a reliably consistent high-quality experience for both ice and off-ice events. Centre leaders continue to work with Trane as their energy services provider to meet their ice-making needs and to help enhance indoor environmental quality.

“Hockey is at the core of what our centre offers, and we are so pleased to offer an amazing ice surface that can deliver a high-level experience for all QJMHL teams,” said Scotiabank Centre Executive Vice-President, Suzanne Fougere. “And it is critical for our off-ice events too. Now when we host back-to-back concert days, for example, we remain confident that we can provide a consistently comfortable environment for our guests.”