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Toronto’s energy efficiency program gets rave reviews

By Scott Anderson

There are many reasons why property owners should look to green initiatives and energy savings measures for their buildings, but when renowned environmentalist David Suzuki touts a program as a model for the world, there is even more reason to consider the options.

After all, Canada’s Suzuki has been one of the leading voices in environmental issues for more than 50 years.

And the City of Toronto’s Better Buildings Partnership, a program which offers resources and funding to implement energy efficiency measures in new and existing multi-residential units, has won high praise from Suzuki.

 “The Better Buildings Partnership can very well be a model not just for the country but for the rest of the world,” he said recently.

Toronto’s Better Buildings Partnership is a city-to-business program providing expertise, resources and financial assistance, with funding provided by the Ontario Power Authority (OPA), to building owners, managers and developers to successfully implement energy efficiency measures in existing buildings and new construction.

Since 1996, BBP has helped building owners, managers and developers achieve their energy efficiency goals. Over the years, the city has added new features that make it easier for clients to achieve these goals. New features include financial incentives and a more streamlined registration process. Funding opportunities that help clients manage the upfront costs of their energy projects have also recently increased.

The benefits vary greatly for the participants in the multi-residential sector, said Victor da Rosa, project manager for the BBP at the City of Toronto.
 
“In the multi-residential sector, we are looking at reducing paybacks down to the two years or less range,” he said.

“We have been very successful with the incentive and that’s another area that really motivates the owners of these buildings and condominium corporations to implement energy efficiency measures because they are responsible on behalf of the owners of the building. Usually when paybacks are longer, it is more difficult to get approvals. With the program it helps to drive down those paybacks.”

A variety of upgrades to the buildings are eligible for financial incentives. Common retrofits that save electricity include lighting, motors, drives, HVAC upgrades, controls, appliances, ground-source cooling systems and solar thermal installations.

The multi-family rebates cover a wide range of upgrades for common and in-suite areas. It also provides for energy audit costs and resident education costs.

Owners can choose two streams -- Prescriptive Measures, which cover so-called “off the shelf” items like light bulbs or lighting fixture replacement where the electricity savings is clear. It is already defined in incentive dollars per measure and applies to buildings under 2,300 square meters and/or single measure projects replacing or upgrading 250 items or less. The rebate is calculated on a per dollar basis in a pre-determined list.

Calculated Savings Measures, which apply to buildings larger than 2,300 square meters, usually require a calculation to determine the electricity savings and incentive based on a comparison of the new equipment to the original equipment being replaced.

Incentives for Toronto buildings are calculated on $800 per kilowatt peak reduction or 10 cents per kilowatt-hour annual reduction. With the exception of lighting, and lighting control upgrades, the new incentive levels are applicable to all retrofit measures accepted under the BBP. Lighting upgrades for MEER are calculated at 7 cents per kilowatt-hour annual reduction.

An energy audit rebate of $35 per building unit up to the total cost of the audit is also available and up to 10 per cent of the final Energy Savings Rebate awarded to a project could also be awarded to offset the cost of eligible resident education activities and materials.

So far some 850 projects have been completed with 76 million square feet of space retrofitted for an annual savings of about $21.5 million. This has resulted in carbon dioxide reduction of 1.5 million tonnes.

“There is an energy savings benefit,” said da Rosa. “Eliminating the smog and pollution that is out there and moving our customers and buildings into a more efficient stature benefits us all.”

Since last May and only across a sampling of approximately 25 client sites, Brookfield Residential Services and its service partners have realized more than $2 million per year in utility cost savings.

The vast majority of that would not have been possible without the incentive programs bringing return on investment to under, or at worst just over one year, said Murray Johnson, vice-president, Client Service Development at Brookfield Residential Services.

“Brookfield Residential Services is often faced with the challenge of keeping condominium fees as low as possible. By far, the largest portion of a condominium annual budget has always been the utility costs. This portion has, until recently, been considered untouchable and a necessary evil,” he said.

“Condominiums are not able to invest large capital costs for long periods without increasing fees and the cost of energy reducing programs are often out of reach. If not for the City of Toronto and MEER incentive programs condominiums would not even consider these projects and would lose out on tens of thousands of dollars of energy savings each year. Save the planet and save some money…it’s a win/win approach to condominium living.”

Deadline Looming

Time is running out for owners to take advantage of the savings, however, as the deadline for applications is December 31, 2010.

This is partly the reason why da Rosa has seen a steady stream of applications flooding in over the recent quarters. This has helped to compensate for marketing issues which slowed communications of the incentives earlier.

“We are trying to drive more growth of this on a quarter by quarter basis. We had the setback of not being able to market the program when it was initially launched, but now that it is out there, we are accelerating it and trying to communicate the case studies and the other initiatives that we are involved with to get it out there as quickly as we can,” he said.

There is also uncertainty as to what form the incentives will take when the program finishes at the end of the year. The city is working with the agencies to extend the program beyond that date, however.

“We are looking to the OPA and hoping that it will continue to survive into the next regime of programs which are to take place from 2011-2014, but this has not been completely resolved yet,” da Rosa said.

“We would like to see as many applications as we can while we have the program on. We don’t know what the OPA is going to do. Our drive is to get the case studies and marketing out on the street and amplify it as much as possible and to not leave anything out that could have been done this year, but we don’t know what the program is going to be doing next year.”

The city, da Rosa said, is also discussing new programs with Toronto Hydro, who along with other distribution parties, will be administering the new programs when they are rolled out from 2011 to 2014 and will be slightly different from what they are now.