Reducing Barriers to the Adoption of Energy Management Technology in Underground Mines – Environment Canada’s ETV Certification Process for Green Mining Technology
Michel Grenier (CanmetMINING, Nat. Res. Canada)
Automated ventilation network management also known as Ventilation-on Demand (VOD) represents one of the best opportunities for the mining sector to reduce the energy costs associated with the mineral extraction process. Ventilation can amount to as much as 40% of the extraction energy costs and even modest reductions in energy consumption can translate into millions of dollars in savings yearly and reduced GHG emissions. A few years ago, CanmetMINING conducted work in collaboration with the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) in order to demonstrate and evaluate VOD systems operating in two Sudbury basin operations. In an effort to promote this technology and facilitate adoption of automated ventilation control systems, CanmetMINING recently worked with Environment Canada (EC) and BESTECH, the technology provider in order to obtain EC’s Environmental Technology Verification certificate. This is an independent third party evaluation of BESTECH’s NRG1-ECO energy management system that was demonstrated to reduce the energy cost of ventilation in an operating mine by more than 20%.
