Legend Power Blog

Legend Power’s Ontario Market Potential More Than Triples

Burnaby, British Columbia, May 10, 2010 – Legend Power Systems Inc. (TSX-V: LPS) (FSE: XLE) (“Legend Power”) advises that as of April 14th 2010, the Ontario Power Authority substantially increased their conservation incentive funding across the entire province of Ontario for non-lighting technologies such as the Electrical Harmonizer-AVR, more than tripling both Legend Power’s incentive funding in the regions outside Metro Toronto and the company’s addressable market size.

The Electricity Retrofit Incentive Program, better known as ERIP, has increased incentive funding to $800/kW from $250/kW for non-lighting measures. This program, while funded by the Ontario Power Authority, is executed and administered by Local Distribution Companies (LDCs) throughout the province. This funding increase now allows our customers outside of the 416 exchange to achieve a three year or better payback in qualified facilities on the purchase of Legend Power’s smart grid technology.

View the full press release.

Suppose your CEO calls tomorrow and asks, “What are we doing about power consumption?” What will you say?

Reducing consumption by turning off computer monitors and equipment requires lifestyle changes to be adopted through the entire organization. These are easy choices to make but they are hard to implement and substantial return on investment is not assured.

Proven, existing efficiency technologies — in everything from lighting to climate control and voltage regulation — can unlock the untapped reserves of efficiency gains buried in many non-residential buildings. Plus government incentive programs remove the barriers to implementation by making the up-front costs and payback periods affordable.

In high-cost energy states such as California, the state government has allocated $3.1 billion for energy incentives for the next three years. New York State also passed legislation at the end of 2009 to make loans available for businesses that want to improve their energy efficiency.

Each state’s programs require different application processes for commercial and institutional buildings and industrial facilities, which means that despite the availability of funding, many building owners and facility managers leave this money on the table, in part because they overestimate the cost of saving energy and forfeit researching their energy saving options.

So when the CEO comes calling, consider whether you are being overbilled for your energy and review the options and funding.

IKEA, for example, saved 7% of its annual energy consumption and saw a 50 kilowatt reduction in peak demand after installing Legend Power’s voltage regulation device in it’s Richmond, BC, facility. The electronic tap changer regulates incoming voltage and reduces energy consumption and costs, extends the life of equipment and does not require workflow changes.

Lighting retrofits, and the replacement of air conditioning sytems, industrial motors and other devices that consume electricity are other commonplace solutions covered by incentive programs.

To give you an idea of what is available, the following chart lists the states with the most expensive energy costs, the number of incentive programs that are available, and the state budget for energy efficiency projects.

To save money, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and conserve power, find the incentive programs in your area:

The Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency lists all of the incentive programs in the US, by state.

The US Department of Energy explains each state’s energy incentive programs.

An explanation of inefficiencies in the power grid.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/badcomputer/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) is a commercial energy conservation success story. By working to promote the commercial real estate industry through leadership and advocacy, BOMA is having significant impact on commercial energy conservation, particularly through it’s two programs — BOMA CDM and BOMA BESt.

BOMA CDM

BOMA Toronto’s Conservation and Demand Management (CDM) Program is a $60 million incentive funding program to encourage building owners and tenants in the Toronto area (416 Area Code) to take on commercial energy conservation projects in their buildings.  The program offers incentives for annual energy savings, in kilowatt hours (kWh), and peak summer demand reductions, in kilowatts (kW), and reducing tons of cooling (for geothermal projects). Up to $5,500 is initially available to individual projects and the program ensures that the cash incentives are easily accessible – they promise that after the Project Completion Report is finalized you’ll receive your incentive payment within 30 business days.

Target
Large commercial buildings with 25,000 square feet or greater.

Eligible Building Types

• Offices
• Hotels
• Retail Stores
• Mixed Use
• Industrial Buildings
• Warehouses
• Private Institutions

Duration
4 years, ending December 31, 2010

Incentive Level
$800 per kilowatt of on-peak demand savings or $0.10 per kilowatt-hour annual consumption savings for non-lighting projects; $400 per kilowatt of on-peak demand savings or $0.05 per kilowatt-hour annual consumption savings for lighting projects; $250 per cooling ton (for ground source cooling projects).

Incentive Cap
Incentive payment limited to 40% of total Eligible Costs.

According to this recent press release,

The CDM Program currently involves over 383 projects, with energy savings equaling the consumption of 26,300 Ontario homes, eliminating 31,000 tonnes of emissions and creating approximately 1,700 Ontario jobs. This represents more than $105 million in capital investment.

For more information, visit the BOMA CDM Website. To apply for incentive funding, fill out the Application Form.

BOMA BESt

BOMA’s Building Environmental Standards (BESt) program is a national environmental standards certification program. BOMA BESt has four levels of building certification and provides building managers with an environmental management tool, recommendations for areas of improvement and an online assessment tool.

Last week’s press release stated that,

the average BOMA certified building consumes roughly 11 per cent less energy than it did a decade ago. Some BOMA buildings have adopted aggressive energy management strategies and undertaken building retrofits to reduce their energy use by as much as 30 per cent.

For information, including application costs, visit the BOMA BESt website.

“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.