Toronto Hydro-Electric System Increases Electricity Conservation Incentives
for Commercial Building and Data Centre Upgrades
TORONTO, March 16 /CNW/ - Toronto Hydro-Electric System Limited ("Toronto Hydro") is pleased to announce that the cap on energy conservation incentives for retrofit projects under its Business Incentive Program and Data Centre Improvement Program has been doubled from $400 per kilowatt to $800 per kilowatt.
Toronto businesses with projects that qualify can now apply for up to $800/kW or 10 cents a kWh (capped at 50% of project cost) - whichever is greater. Energy efficient lighting incentives have also been increased - up to $400/kW or five cents/kWh (from $150/kW). To help our commercial and industrial customers identify and analyze energy saving measures, an incentive of up to $4,000 for energy efficiency studies conducted by a qualified consultant is also now available.
To be eligible for our Business Improvement Incentive, you must be an industrial, multi residential or commercial customer in the City of Toronto. Special eligibility conditions apply to commercial customers who must be less than 25,000 square feet in floor area. Potential retrofit projects that may be eligible include: data centre improvements (such as virtualization and HVAC upgrades), modifications to industrial production lines, compressed air improvements, energy efficient lighting upgrades, motor replacements and variable speed drive applications, building automation and control upgrades, as well as other energy efficient measures.
To qualify, the customer must complete an application and obtain advance approval for the proposed project. The process is straightforward and can be completed on the Toronto Hydro website with approvals given normally within one week.
Approximately 80 per cent of Toronto's electricity demand comes from Toronto Hydro's commercial and industrial customers. These programs are intended to help reduce demands on Toronto Hydro's distribution system.
QUOTE - Chris Tyrrell, Chief Conservation Officer, Toronto Hydro
"Not only will the incentives improve the energy efficiency investment returns for our customers, they will also help them achieve their corporate social responsibility objectives through energy reductions and related environmental benefits."
FACTS/BACKGROUND
Toronto Hydro is committed to supporting business customers with a number of programs to help customers lower their energy consumption and costs, and reduce electricity demand on our grid.
Business Incentive Program (BIP): The program was created to encourage Toronto Hydro business customers to implement energy efficiency improvement projects. The key goal is to help Toronto Hydro customers, the Province, and City meet their energy reduction targets. Since its introduction in 2007, almost 260 projects have been completed with a combined savings of approximately 17MW (the average electricity demand for the city of Kenora is 18MW(xx)).
Data Centre Incentive Program (DCIP): In North America, the growth of electric energy consumption in data centres is increasing. The average data centre consumes 10 to 100 times more energy per square foot than a typical office building, and about 90 per cent of companies running large data centres need to increase their power and cooling capabilities in the next 30 months*(xxx).
Toronto Hydro's DCIP offsets the cost for more energy efficient equipment and design, helping customers cut electricity use in commercial and institutional data centres. Customers that participate could see immediate and on-going financial savings through reduced power consumption, and there could possibly be related environmental benefits such as reduced carbon emissions, due to lower electricity usage. The utility is proceeding to virtualize its own servers in its data centres. Since it began in 2008, 45 per cent of Toronto Hydro's servers have been consolidated, decreasing the space required to locate them and reducing electricity use.
LINKS:
Data Centre Incentive Program: www.torontohydro.com/DCIP
Business Incentive Program: www.torontohydro.com/BIP
BOILERPLATE
Toronto Hydro Corporation is a holding company which, through its principal subsidiaries:
- Distributes electricity and engages in conservation and demand management ("CDM") activities; and - Provides street lighting services.
The principal business of Toronto Hydro is the distribution of electricity by Toronto Hydro-Electric System Limited. Toronto Hydro-Electric System owns and operates $1.9 billion of Capital Assets comprised primarily of an electricity distribution system that delivers electricity to approximately 690,000 customers located in the City of Toronto. It is the largest municipal electricity distribution company in Canada and distributes approximately 18% of the electricity consumed in Ontario.
* Mckinsey & Company/The Uptime Institute - July 2008 (xx) IESO (xxx) Based on removing one kilowatt running 8,760 hours/year (8,760 kWh) multiplied by an all in electricity cost of $0.1/kWh.
For further information: For further information: Tanya Bruckmueller, Toronto Hydro, [email protected], W: (416) 542-2621, C: (416) 903-0440
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