Legend Power Blog

A couple of weeks ago we looked at BOMA Toronto’s Conservation and Demand Management (CDM) Program and the incentive funding available through BOMA for the Toronto area. This week, we’ll look at incentive funding in British Columbia through the Public Sector Energy Conservation Agreement (PSECA).

PSECA is a project between BC Hydro and the Province to fund public sector building retrofits. The purpose is to significantly reduce energy consumption across more htan 6,500 public sector buildings.The project will invest $200 million in new technology, energy innovation and retrofits.

By 2020, the project is aiming for a 20% reduction in public sector energy consumption or a net savings of 342 gigawatt hours of electricity annually. This is enough to power 34,200 homes.

According to the original press release, PSECA includes:

• Provincial investments in energy efficiency upgrades and retrofits in government buildings.
• Implementation of energy conservation projects across the public sector, and promotion of technology innovation at public sector buildings.
• An employee engagement component to encourage government employees to be energy conservation leaders at work and at home.

Goals

Reduce electricity consumption in existing provincial buildings by 5% by 2011, 14% by 2016, and 20% by 2020.

Eligible Building Types

• Provincial government office buildings
• Crown corporations
• Schools, universities, and colleges
• Hospitals
• Social housing

Duration

The agreement is in effect from 2008 through 2020.

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To register with the PSECA Funding Program contact PSECA Administration.

To apply for funding opportunities with PSECA, you must have an established BCeID account. Download the instructions for registering with BCeID (PDF).

“One-third of all the energy used in commercial buildings is wasted.”

This is according to Robert H. Lane, president of Robert H. Lane and Associates Inc., in a seminar during Construct Canada, Canada’s largest building design and construction show, last month.

Referring to Lane’s presentation, RCD Digital Media stated:

When it comes to understanding intelligent buildings – those with systems and technologies that work in sync to create efficiencies and save energy – developers and contractors need to do more homework.

Despite the current trend in green building and sustainability, there’s a lot more to learn. As Lane says “I think there is a general know-how and experience lacking in a lot of building professionals.”

Intelligent building design is essential to cutting down on our energy consumption and eliminating energy wastage. Unlike most other countries, Canada’s energy consumption is going up, not down as Lisa Bate, Chair of Canada Green Building Council pointed out in her seminar at Construct Canada.

Part of the problem, as Lane points out, is that building professionals “often overestimate the cost of saving energy.” Building professionals need to sit down and take the time to learn about energy saving processes and issues.