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News & Announcements
2/7/2011 | Plan takes advantage of rebates to minimized energy use
Energy account manager Rob O’Keeffe has proposed a plan that will maximize and leverage government incentives to make a switch in back-end infrastructure to reduce ongoing energy consumption.
BC Hydro, in conjunction with the province of British Columbia, has released an incentive program for businesses to switch from the T12 electrical ballasts (used commonly in fluorescent lights) to T8s, a lower-wattage bulb.
B.C. has taken a leadership position as a carbon neutral government and has regulated that all public-sector organizations be carbon neutral as of 2010.
In accordance, BC Hydro enacted the Power Smart Partner Express (PSPE) to help large commercial, government and institutional customers perform simple retrofits, like upgrading lighting systems.
The program provides custom-tailored incentives that reflect the amount of energy a business can save through a particular project, and takes into account the time it will take to pay for it.
Projects must be submitted for the PSPE’s approval by Mar. 31 to be eligible for funding.
“Under the program, the government provides financial incentives for conversion to technology with a lighter electronic footprint. They will be willing to fund a portion of the cost if you can show them what you’re replacing and what you’re replacing it with,” says O’Keeffe.
O’Keeffe says in the 25 buildings under consideration for this upgrade, there are upwards of 100,000 T12 bulbs and 40,000 fixtures and ballasts for replacement.
“If you were to completely remove all of the T12s, it’d be about 10 gigawatts of reduction, which is a huge number,” he says.
The potential for O’Keeffe is to have 25 buildings being retrofitted in a matter of eight weeks, at a rebated price, with a return on investment of about a year and a half, with an ongoing savings of 1 million kilowatts each year.
He says the deal makes strong financial and business sense.
“It’s a 1.2 year payback on a $700,000 initial investment, and we’ll get $350,000 back,” he says.
O’Keeffe says the greatest challenge will be in finding the upfront capital to get the ballasts, bulbs and fixtures installed before the rebate.
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