The new underground power plant at Lions Gate Hospital is a key piece of infrastructure to enable construction of a new acute care facility in North Vancouver. 

The existing steam-only power plant at Lions Gate Hospital did not meet seismic requirements and was quite dated. HH Angus replaced the existing plant with a new buried installation that includes boilers, medical gas, plumbing and electrical equipment, as well as the routing of services through an existing tunnel system. 

The new design for the underground plant is a hybrid of hot water and steam boilers; this design will help to reduce both energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. It’s an innovative design that recovers heat from the power plant via a heat pump system and rejects heat back into the reheat systems. An architectural feature boiler stack was included in the design.

The RFP originally required relocation of the bulk O2 system; however, following a number of design iterations, the result was the provision of an Oxygen Concentrator system instead.

Implementation of the Fraser Health Authority’s BIM standards was also required for the project. This is the first time these standards were applied at HH Angus, and the work helped to develop a baseline for future Fraser Health projects.

Among the challenges of the project:

– With limited knowledge of the existing site, it was necessary to obtain all background information within a short timeframe through access to existing drawings (dating back to 1960s) and performing multiple site reviews.

– To provide the best solution, HH Angus explored multiple options, above and beyond the requirements of the original RFP and, although the timeline for completion of design and implemention of new BIM standards was aggressive, all deliverables were met on time.