Our Services
A full suite of services tailored to customer’s needs
Noventa offers end-to-end services to drive the green reinvention of commercial, residential, and institutional space in our communities. Through disruptive innovation like our Wastewater Energy Transfer™ projects, we are challenging conventional thinking to catalyze meaningful decarbonization of our world.
Many renewable energy technologies are never fully commercialized because conventional practices are seldom challenged. We have made it our mission to defy these practices with disruptive innovation.
With our Toronto Western Hospital WET™ project for example, we did not do the norm, which would have been to tap into small feeder sewers that could only provide token amounts of thermal energy. Instead, we tapped into the 10-foot diameter Mid Toronto Interceptor sewer, 160 feet below the surface, because it has enough waste water flow to provide meaningful environmental and economic benefits to the hospital.
Turning creative ideas into tangible projects is the cornerstone of our business. From conceptual design to project commissioning, Noventa provides the support and services required to build projects that exceed expectations – whether owned and operated by Noventa or by the customer.
Our team’s extensive experience and proven success in delivering challenging, unique projects have earned us the respect of our industry-leading partners, who work with us to ensure that our commitments to our stakeholders are never compromised.
Noventa understands the nature of infrastructure projects and the long-term investment horizon required to provide economic benefits to all stakeholders. With the financial resources of our major shareholder, Ancala Partners LLC, we are able to finance our WET™ systems without any up-front capital contribution from our customers. We then provide energy-as-a-service (EaaS) pursuant to long-term Thermal Energy Services Agreements that include performance guarantees.
Our EaaS value proposition is founded on trust, transparency and mutual benefit.
Noventa understands that ownership of energy assets can have significant legal and financial implications for many customers which can preclude working with external partners - especially in the public and not-for-profit sectors. Therefore, we work with clients to develop customized solutions that respect their unique ownership and procurement requirements while providing financial security for Noventa. Our goal is to deploy the proprietary HUBER ThermWin® technology for which we are exclusive distributors, and we will work within each customer’s parameters to make that happen.
Notwithstanding creative design and patented innovation, a project can only achieve its potential if operated correctly. To that end, Noventa employs a team of experienced plant operators and trained, HUBER certified service technicians to operate and maintain our WET™ systems.
Through automation, on-site visits and troubleshooting, we can also guide and support our customers to optimize their operations after integration with our WET™ systems. "
Although the patented HUBER RoWin® heat exchanger requires virtually no manual cleaning, maintaining the other components of the WET™ system in a state of good repair is simply smart business. Oiling motors, periodically changing RoK4® scrubbing brushes and servicing the backup generators, heat pumps and ancillary plant equipment will prolong life and ensure optimal operation. In partnership with our equipment suppliers, Noventa offers single-point-of-contact service agreements that keep equipment operating at maximum efficiency and provide peace of mind to our customers for the life of the project.
The Toronto Western Hospital Case Study:
The Full Spectrum of Services in Action
Constructing large infrastructure projects in dense urban settings or environmentally sensitive areas can be very challenging. With over 100 years of collective energy industry experience, Noventa's leadership team has learned a few things along the way to overcome these challenges.
With our recent WET™ system at Toronto Western Hospital, Noventa’s team has demonstrated that we can deliver large infrastructure projects in the most challenging settings. We managed the competing interests of multiple stakeholders to deliver a multi-faceted project that will displace over 8,400 tCO2e per year. We worked with our construction partners to value-engineer innovative changes to the project design that expedited delivery, mitigated community disruption and increased energy output. From this project, we have gained valuable insight, which has led to other Noventa patent applications, including our Umbrella Bore System™ that will leverage Wetwell infrastructure to incorporate geo-exchange that could supplement the heating and cooling capacity of future WET™ systems.
Design
Noventa’s team of creative engineers led the design of the Toronto Western Hospital Wastewater Energy Transfer (WET)™ project from concept to reality. Supported by our equally creative colleagues at HUBER Technology, the design of this project demonstrates WET™’s potential to decarbonize our world.
Noventa's team advanced engineering design to 30%. This included developing a building energy model to determine annual and peak energy demand and identifying pipe routing and interconnection points within the hospital HVAC system. Once energy demand was established and agreed upon with UHN staff, the WET™ system was configured to maximize energy output, and equipment specifications were finalized. During this stage, Noventa and UHN worked collaboratively and determined the space needed to house the Huber and Trane machines and ancillary equipment required to facilitate thermal energy transfer to and from wastewater.
With project viability confirmed and parameters agreed upon, our professional industry partners were dispatched to complete 60% of the design. The team included MCW, R.V. Anderson, Grounded Engineering, Stantec, Jacobs, Canem Systems, and Bird Construction. Our industry partners validated and refined Noventa’s design to ensure the seamless integration of the WET™ system with the hospital HVAC system - a task that included the conversion of a steam heating system to hot water. As our consultants progressed with the WET™ system design, Noventa negotiated the Wastewater Energy Transfer™ Agreement (WTEA) with the City of Toronto - the first municipal wastewater energy agreement in the City’s history and the first in North America.
Build
Structural, mechanical, and civil construction can be the death knell of a good renewable energy project. Even the best designs can benefit from experienced constructors who can value engineer a project to achieve better results. The Noventa Management Services (NMS) team brings that experience and innovation to every project as they work with industry partners and equipment suppliers to refine project design and overcome unforeseen challenges.
With our WET™ project at TWH, the Noventa team is providing leadership on several fronts, including:
Relocating an existing vortex chamber
Before Wetwell construction could begin, an existing vortex chamber had to be demolished and a new one with the same functionality and flow capacity reconstructed. To maintain wastewater flow and avoid spillage during construction, Noventa installed a temporary bulkhead in the Bathurst Interconnecting Sewer.
Additionally, a temporary diversion of the Bathurst Interconnecting Sewer was installed to direct its flow into the Mid Toronto Interceptor.
Building major civil infrastructure at a busy urban intersection
Building major civil infrastructure in the middle of a bustling intersection can be daunting in the best circumstances. Construction of Noventa’s WET™ system at TWH overcame expected challenges related to hospital operations, the proximity of a public school, a busy community centre, a library, a swimming pool and a public park - and if these obstacles weren’t enough, the project had to navigate around streetcar tracks and overhead wires as well as a bus route.
Despite these challenges, Noventa is delivering the project with minimal disruption to hospital operations and the surrounding community.
Coordinating with other construction at the hospital
Coordinating the work of different contractors at one site can be challenging at the best of times. Doing this in the unique setting of a busy hospital can be ruinous if not handled with care, flexibility, and creativity. With our TWH WET™ project, success demanded that we be proactive.
To address the limited, often confined, space for staging and construction, Noventa’s team has to adapt quickly to changing circumstances and competing needs. This involved regular communication and coordination of efforts with hospital personnel and contractors to come up with innovative solutions that are beneficial to all parties involved.
Finance
With the investment of Ancala Partners LLC in Noventa, the capital stack for the TWH WET™ project was restructured to include equity from Noventa, a capital contribution from the University Health Network and debt financing from Vancity Community Investment Bank and the CIB. Typically, our WET™ systems are delivered through as Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS) models that do not include up-front capital contributions from our customers.
The TWH WET™ project is being delivered through an EaaS model pursuant to a 40 year Thermal Energy Services Agreement that includes performance guarantees.
Throughout the term, the hospital benefits from meaningful energy and operating cost savings and reduced Scope 1 GHG emissions - with the potential to eliminate all Scope 1 GHG emissions in subsequent phases.
Own
Ownership of large-scale infrastructure assets is not always desirable for property owners as it often includes costs and risks that can be daunting. This is especially so in cases where new technology is being used or a project is subject to external dependencies like wastewater and city approvals – as is the case with Noventa's WET™ System at Toronto Western Hospital.
Although UHN was comfortable with the HUBER ThermWin® technology, they preferred a district energy service model which mitigated ownership risk. As such, Noventa will own the WET™ system and provide Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS) to the hospital pursuant to a long-term energy services agreement. In the case of other customers, however, asset ownership is an essential part of a customer’s decision to proceed.
When ownership must rest with a customer which does not have the capital to finance a project, Noventa can structure the transaction as a sale/lease-back where Noventa builds the project and transfers ownership to the customer upon commissioning. The asset is then leased back to Noventa to operate and provide energy to the customer through an EaaS delivery model.
In either case, the end goal is to provide peace of mind as a trusted partner.
Operate
Our WET™ System at Toronto Western Hospital is more than a low-carbon energy project. It is also our commitment to deliver heating and cooling to a critical care facility. The responsibility that comes with this expectation is not lost on us. To that end, the WET™ system has been designed with best-in-class controls from Trane, redundancy measures and back-up power generation. Importantly, we will provide 24/7 monitoring, and our experienced team at Noventa Management Services Inc. will ensure that the system is operated and maintained according to the highest industry standards.
Maintain
Project design cannot hide bad operations or inadequate maintenance. Maintaining valuable assets in a state-of-good-repair is vital to achieving design performance throughout the term of the Energy Services Agreement. To that end, the experienced team at Noventa Management Services Inc (NMS) ensures that maintenance is never compromised, and shortcuts are never taken. As Certified HUBER Technicians, our team works closely with our HUBER colleagues in Germany, the UK and the US to ensure timely troubleshooting and delivery of parts and service as required. Additionally, comprehensive maintenance and service agreements with all our major equipment suppliers and daily upkeep by Noventa (NMS) staff will ensure that the WET™ system at TWH is maintained in a constant state-of-good-repair.