Electric power conservation and demand management in Ontario

Ontario has been in the forefront of North American initiatives relating to electric power. It started in 2004 when as part of Ontario's Smart Metering Initiative, the Ontario Government legislated that all electric power customers in the province have smart meters by 2010.  Ontario’s roll-out of smart meters together with time-of-use electric power rates rates as the largest in the world.  In 2007, the Ontario Government committed to phasing out coal generation in the province by 2014.  That includes Ontario Power Generation's Nanticoke plant which is the largest coal fired power plant in North America.  In 2009 the Green Energy and Green Economy Act established a feed-in-tariff program modeled on the German feed-in-tariff program and which has been responsible for the deployment of over 7 000 small scale distributed generation projects across the province.

Conservation and Demand Management

Another active area in Ontario is conservation and demand management (CDM).  The Ontario Energy Board's (OEB) Conservation and Demand Management Code for Electricity Distributors (CDM Code) sets out the obligations and requirements with all provincial electricity distributors (EDC).  The current CDM Code applies to the 4-year period starting January 1, 2011 through December 31, 2014.  The OEB has  assigned CDM peak load and consumption reduction targets to each electric power distributor with an aggregate total of 1,330 MW of provincial peak demand reduction by the end of the four-year period and 6,000 GWh of reduced electricity consumption accumulated over the four-year period.

As an example, the OEB has required Horizon Utilities Corp to reduce peak demand by 5.6% and consumption by 4.9% by 2014.  To succesfully target their CDM program on buildings with high energy footprints, Horizon has partnered with public organizations including Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC), Teranet, and others to provide them with detailed building and property information such as building age, sun exposure, heating type, air conditioning, and parcel data.  They also partnered with NRCan/CanmetENERGY for standard metrics for different building types, with Environics for Prizm lifestyle profiles and data, and with Canadian Urban Institute to map energy density at the building level.

To support this effort, for home owners and businesses there are a number of programs under the logo SaveOnEnergy developed by the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) to help reduce peak demand and consumption.  For businesses these include

• Demand response - DR compensates participating businesses for reducing energy demand, typically at peak summer demand. DR can be incorporated into business’ energy management by reducing equipment electricity use, generating power in-house or shifting production to an off-peak period.
• Small business lighting- qualifying businesses can get up to $1,000 worth in energy-efficient lighting and equipment upgrades
• Retrofit program - provides financial incentives (up to 50% of the cost) for replacing existing equipment with high efficiency equipment and for installing new control systems that will improve the efficiency of  operational procedures and processes.
• peaksaver PLUS- involves installing a load management device on central air conditioners or electric water heaters that can be remotely activated to slightly reduce the appliance’s electricity demand
• Audit funding - businesses are eligible for incentives to complete energy audits assessing the potential for energy savings to be achieved through equipment replacement, operational practices, or participation in Demand Response initiative.
• Existing building commissioning - provides funding for improving the efficiency of chilled water systems
• High performance new construction(HPNC) - for new construction and major renovations in the planning stages, the HPNC program provides design assistance and financial incentives for building owners and architects who exceed the electricity efficiency standards specified in the Ontario Building Code. It will fund up to 100% of the cost of modelling a building, and will pay $400 for every kilowatt saved for lighting measures or up to $800 for every kilowatt saved for non-lighting measures.
• Process and systems - Up to 70% funding toward major energy-saving upgrade projects
• Training and support - partially funded training programs for energy efficiency in HVAC, low rise building construction, and building operation.
• New home construction - incentives to home builders and renovators for the installation of energy-efficient measures
• Social and assisted housing - financial incentives to make assisted and social housing buildings more energy-efficient.

I blogged previously about how developing a BIM model during the design phase of a new building provides the basis for energy analyses that can help reduce the buildings projected electric power usage and qualify for HPNC financial incentives.

Comments

[Chad Davis]

Hmm, Ontario already has a reputation for generating high levels of electric power. So this wouldn't come off as a modest surprise to many. Its high time to draw plans outlining effective power conservation and demand management for Ontario. Thanks for sharing this insightful post with us!