Executive Overview

Bell Canada is Canada’s largest communications company with several offices, data centres and network facilities supporting critical telecommunications infrastructure across Canada. Energy performance is therefore a key operational priority. Bell established a comprehensive energy and sustainability program with measurable short-term and long-term targets, clear milestones, and trackable performance indicators.

The program engages teams across the organization so operational decisions, capital investments, and infrastructure upgrades support these goals. The cooling optimization project at the  North Street telecommunications facility in Halifax demonstrates how this program translates strategy into measurable energy and operational improvements.

Awards Insider Feature

Challenge

The North Street building is a 116,354 sq. ft. telecommunications facility in Halifax that operates 24/7 and supports critical offices, network, and data equipment. Cooling reliability is essential because telecom infrastructure must operate continuously under tightly controlled environmental conditions. At the same time, cooling systems represent one of the largest sources of electricity consumption in these facilities, creating a significant opportunity to reduce energy use, operating costs, and emissions.

The challenge was to develop a cooling optimization strategy that could safely maximize the use of free cooling from Halifax’s cool outdoor climate while maintaining strict temperature and humidity requirements for mission critical telecom equipment. The solution needed to dynamically balance mechanical cooling and outdoor air cooling, operate automatically through advanced control logic, and integrate fully with the building automation system (BAS) to ensure reliable and consistent performance while delivering meaningful energy and emissions reductions.

Innovation

The North Street Cooling System Optimization Project demonstrates how operational insight and engineering discipline can unlock significant performance improvements in mission-critical infrastructure. The initiative began when Bell’s on-site technician identified that the facility was not fully benefiting from Halifax’s cool outdoor climate and developed a practical concept to improve how outside air could support cooling.

Bell’s Real Estate team evaluated the concept and developed it into a fully engineered solution with support from mechanical and controls specialists. The project implemented a redesigned air-side economizer integrated with the BAS, allowing the facility to automatically balance mechanical cooling and free cooling based on real-time outdoor conditions.

Continuous monitoring, BAS trend analysis, and commissioning ensure the system remains optimized over time. This approach transforms a technician-led idea into a scalable model for improving cooling performance across Bell’s telecommunications portfolio.

Impact

The cooling system optimization at the North Street building has delivered clear and measurable energy, cost, and emissions reductions while maintaining the reliability required for a mission-critical telecommunications facility. By enabling the building to use outdoor air for cooling during suitable conditions, the upgraded system now displaces up to 30 per cent of mechanical cooling load during shoulder seasons.

This has significantly reduced chiller and cooling tower runtime, allowing fewer chillers to operate at any given time and lowering overall electrical demand. The project is delivering approximately 475,000 kWh of electricity savings annually, resulting in about $75,800 in avoided energy costs and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 14.3 tonnes of CO₂e each year.

Reduced mechanical runtime also extends equipment life, lowers maintenance requirements, and reduces cooling tower water, chemical, and treatment consumption, delivering additional long-term operational savings.