Fall is in full swing, and the HSC Energy Services team is busy training AssetPlanner clients, planning our next stakeholder meeting, and getting ready to finalize our gas purchasing. In this issue of Energy Matters, we bring you a guest article from Enbridge Gas, share feedback on utility incentive programs submitted to the Ministry of Energy, and let you know about an upcoming webinar on utility incentives. Happy fall reading everyone!
In this issue:
- How Can Enbridge Incentive Programs Support You and Your Tenants?
- Ontario Plans for Electrification and Electricity Incentives Post 2024
- Register Now for our October 4th Energy Incentive Webinar
- Get Your Q2 2023 UMP Reports
How Can Enbridge Incentive Programs Support You and Your Tenants?
The following guest article is sponsored content provided by Enbridge Gas, Inc.
From single family homes up to high-rises, Enbridge has a variety of programs to support housing providers in completing retrofits on buildings of various types. Let’s take a look:
Home Winterproofing Program
If your tenants and members heat their homes with natural gas, they automatically income qualify for insulation free of charge through the Enbridge Gas Home Winterproofing Program. This program provides free energy-efficient upgrades, including wall, basement and attic insulation, draft proofing, and a smart thermostat, to eligible single-family homes which include detached, semi-detached, row or townhouses.
Sound too good to be true?
More than 22,000 Ontario homes have already received these free upgrades.
Why participate in the program?
Not only will you be able to upgrade your members or tenants’ insulation needs free of charge through this program, but they will receive all the associated benefits. Such benefits include lower energy bills, the ability to better regulate the temperature in the home through a smart thermostat and increase resident comfort.
Since you already income qualify for the program, what happens next?
- Contact one of our authorized program delivery agents at 1-844-770-3148.
- Answer a few short questions about your building portfolio.
- The delivery agent will visit the homes to check whether they’re properly insulated, or if air is escaping through windows and doors. This home energy assessment usually takes about two hours. All in-home visits will be coordinated with property managers and staff to provide enough notice to your tenants or members.
- If the home is eligible for free upgrades, professional contractors will install them at your convenience. It’s quick and clean, and there’s no cost.
- Finally, a delivery agent will make a follow-up visit to make sure everything’s working properly and to answer any questions.
To learn more about the program and see if your building portfolio qualifies, call 1-844-770-3148.
Did you know that Enbridge Gas also has other programs for affordable housing providers that will save you money?
Affordable Housing Multi-Residential Program
Our Affordable Housing Multi-Residential Program offers financial incentives to help identify and implement energy efficiency initiatives. Our program is designed to save energy, cut operating costs, and reduce carbon emissions. We work closely with the affordable housing provider to identify the right technology and apply an incentive to help build a better business case for approvals. Our team does all the heavy lifting, from design assistance to verifying savings; we even take care of the paperwork.
To learn more about this program go to enbridgegas.com/affordable
Savings by Design Affordable Housing Program
Our Savings by Design Affordable Housing program has the exciting goal of encouraging builders of new affordable housing to integrate energy efficiency measures and practices into their building designs to reduce building operating cost, enhance comfort for residents and decrease greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The program provides financial incentives and technical supports to assist affordable housing builders to build affordable housing projects that are at least 20 percent more energy efficient than required by the building code.
To learn more about this program go to enbridgegas.com/savingsbydesign.
You’re invited – HSC is hosting a webinar on October 4, 2023, from 1:00 to 2:00 pm during which you can hear about Enbridge’s energy efficiency programs for affordable housing.
Ontario Plans for Electrification and Electricity Incentives Post 2024
The Ontario Ministry of Energy recently invited public input on the future of electricity energy efficiency programs in Ontario. With current programs ending in 2024, the province has begun planning the next evolution of electricity energy efficiency programs. The province expects efficiency programs to be a key tool in meeting future electricity system needs.
Existing programs, such as Save on Energy’s Retrofit and Energy Affordability programs, operate under the 2021-2024 Conservation and Demand Management framework, which ends December 31, 2024. This framework was developed during a period of relatively flat electricity consumption.
The province anticipates that economic growth and unprecedented increases in electricity demand due to electrification and decarbonization will create intense pressure on Ontario’s electricity system over the next two decades. Meeting this challenge will require a multipronged strategy, combining innovative electricity generation approaches, efficient technologies, and efficiency programming.
HSC submitted feedback to the Ministry to help inform the scope and design of post 2024 electricity energy efficiency programs. Our input focused on programs for the social housing sector and was based on feedback gathered during various engagements with Ontario housing providers and stakeholder groups.
The HSC submission highlighted:
- The need for ongoing, dedicated energy efficiency and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction project funding for our sector;
- The need for a whole-building, whole-portfolio approach across natural gas and electricity efficiency incentive and funding programs; and
- Our sector’s intense interest in adopting electrification, energy storage, and distributed energy response (DER) projects to achieve current and incoming municipal emissions reduction targets.
HSC will continue tracking the province’s energy efficiency program planning. If you have input you’d like to share with HSC, please contact our Energy Services team.
Register Now for October 4th Energy Incentive Webinar
HSC is hosting an Enbridge-sponsored webinar on October 4, 2023, from 1 – 2 PM through our SHARE webinar series. Ontario affordable housing providers are invited to learn how to save through Enbridge’s various programs.
In this webinar, program experts from Enbridge Gas will provide an overview of their energy efficiency incentive programs geared to affordable housing, including:
- Affordable Housing Multi Residential Program
- Affordable Housing Savings by Design
- Home Winterproofing Program
The webinar will cover the types of projects, activities, and equipment eligible for rebates and incentives under each program and how to access them. Case studies and testimonials will also be shared that prove how Enbridge Gas incentive programs can benefit your projects.
Get Your Q2 2023 UMP Reports
The fall is a great time to review your buildings’ utility performance data in the HSC Utility Management Program (UMP) portal.
Log-in to UMP to view the latest UMP dashboards and Gas, Electricity, and Water reports. Data is available through to the end of June 2023.
If you’re not sure how to interpret your data, contact HSC Energy Services – we’d be happy to help!
Other Topics? If you’d like to suggest a topic or want a one-on-one review with HSC staff, please contact us!