Creative Energy is a private

district heating District heating (also known as heat networks or teleheating) is a system for distributing heat generated in a centralized location through a system of insulated pipes for residential and commercial heating requirements such as space heating a ...

company. The company was founded on November 1, 1968, by group of engineers with a desire to lower heating bills for buildings (no boilers to buy and maintain) and to reduce the amount of pollution being created to provide heat downtown. In 2014, Central Heat Distribution was rebranded as Creative Energy and began taking on additional district heating projects in Vancouver and Toronto.

Facilities

Beatty Street, Vancouver

A Creative Energy owned a operated district energy facility at 720 Beatty Street in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

provides heat to the Downtown Core including the

Vancouver Public Library Vancouver Public Library (VPL) is the public library system for the city of Vancouver, British Columbia. In 2013, VPL had more than 6.9 million visits with patrons borrowing nearly 9.5 million items including: books, ebooks, CDs, DVDs, video game ...

Central Branch, BC Place,

Rogers Arena Rogers Arena is a multi-purpose arena located at 800 Griffiths Way in the downtown area of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Opened in 1995, the arena was known as General Motors Place (GM Place) from its opening until July 6, 2010, when Ge ...

, Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Pacific Centre and most major hotel/office/condo towers such as Shaw Tower via a 10.5 km network of high-pressure pipes between five centimetres and 50 centimetres in diameter running anywhere from one to five metres below street surfaces. The world-famous

steam clock A steam clock is a clock which is fully or partially powered by a steam engine. Only a few functioning steam clocks exist, most designed and built by Canadian horologist Raymond Saunders for display in urban public spaces. Steam clocks built by ...

Gastown Gastown is the original settlement that became the core of the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and a national historic site and a neighbourhood in the northwest section of the Downtown Eastside, adjacent to Downtown Vancouver. Its hi ...

is a notable addition to the more than 180 buildings that are served by the

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

powered boiler located in the Stadium/Entertainment district of downtown. The massive building that occupies the west end of the Georgia Viaduct was once home to the printing plant for Pacific Press the publishers of

The Vancouver Sun The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. Published si ...

and

The Province ''The Province'' is a daily newspaper published in tabloid format in British Columbia by Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network, alongside the ''Vancouver Sun'' broadsheet newspaper. Together, they are British Columbia's only ...

newspapers. In 2020, a plan was approved to replace the building with an office and entertainment complex that will have an expanded electric steam plant in the basement.

Oakridge, Vancouver

As part of the Oakridge Centre redevelopment in Vancouver, Creative Energy is building a district energy facility for the Oakridge neighbourhood that will be integrated into Westbank's buildings. The facility, estimated for completion in 2027, will use a mix of gas and electric boilers connected to a

geothermal heat pump A ground source heat pump (also geothermal heat pump) is a heating/cooling system for buildings that uses a type of heat pump to transfer heat to or from the ground, taking advantage of the relative constancy of temperatures of the earth through ...

Main Alley, Vancouver

Main Alley is a proposed district cooling project for office buildings on Main Street in Vancouver that would be an extension of a current facility on East Fifth Avenue.

TRU, Kamloops

Creative Energy is working with Thompson Rivers University in

Kamloops Kamloops ( ) is a city in south-central British Columbia, Canada, at the confluence of the South flowing North Thompson River and the West flowing Thompson River, east of Kamloops Lake. It is located in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, w ...

to introduce three mini-district energy facility powered by electric boilers across its campus by 2024.

Horseshoe Bay

As part of a luxury waterfront development in the Horseshoe Bay neighbourhood of

West Vancouver West Vancouver is a district municipality in the province of British Columbia, Canada. A member municipality of the Metro Vancouver Regional District, West Vancouver is to the northwest of the city of Vancouver on the northern side of English Ba ...

, Creative Energy installed a geothermal system that extracts heat from the ocean.

Mirvish Village, Toronto

A mixed energy source district heating project is currently underway, as of May 2021, as part of the

Mirvish Village Palmerston-Little Italy is a neighbourhood in central Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its boundaries, according to the City of Toronto, are by Bathurst Street to the east, Bloor Street to the north, Dovercourt Road to the west and College Street to th ...

redevelopment in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

References

External links

CHDL profile on ProfileCanada

Guestlife Vancouver article on CHDL

Google Maps satellite view showing the CHDL facility

{{Vancouver landmarks Companies based in Vancouver Energy companies of Canada