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Weekly UpdatesWhen Michelle Justice walks through a North Bay business on an audit she sees a checklist in her head of easy-to-do things for a company to save money on their power bill.
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With dozens of small retailers and manufacturers across the city, North Bay Hydro's Energy Management Advisor has a multitude of companies to visit on her prospect list.
Justice's mandate is to educate businesses on how to reduce their power consumption with some low cost measures. It starts by looking up at the ceiling.
"We're encouraging businesses to change from a T12 (florescent) bulb with standard ballast to a high efficiency ballast and a T8 fixture."
North Bay Hydro provides free energy audit walk-throughs to any business interested in taking advantage of two incentive programs offered by the Ontario Power Authority.
After labour, power is usually the second largest cost to business.
The local utility is cultivating a culture of true believers in North Bay with 92 large and small businesses signed on under two Ontario Power Authority conservation programs. The companies have either completed lighting installations or have signed work orders for this year.
Carl Crewson, owner of canoe, kayak and peddle-boat builder Plastitech, was among the first wave of business retrofits.
More than a year and half ago, his family-run company did a complete conversion of more 100-ceiling lights at the 100,000-square-foot shop. They replaced old and inefficient metal Halide lamps and T-12s in their parts room and assembly areas with noticeably brighter T5s and T8's florescent lights.
"They (Halide lamps) were not very efficient with a slow warm-up time," said service manager George Bishop, who lead the re-lighting effort. "If the power was off, it was slow to recover."
The bulbs in the old lamps also tended to fade badly after a year.
"The trailer factory (built in 2001) was getting like a cave with the lighting that was put in," adds Crewson, who expects to see a four-year payback for his $30,000 investment.
"Physically we do things different," said Crewson. "We don't run several motors at the same time to cut down on the (power) demand."
Already there has been a 10 per cent savings on the monthly hydro bill since the 2007 installation.
Motion sensors for lighting were installed and lower horsepower motors introduced to run equipment. Computers are turned off at day's end, heat is controlled through programmable thermostats, and office lights are switched off when not in use.
North Bay Hydro's business outreach programs have been fabulously successful.
Last year, the local utility power conservation efforts resulted in a savings of $14.5-million kilowatt energy savings, keeping $1.4 million in the pockets of business and residential customers.
Included in that number are 150 businesses ranging from doctor's offices to retail stores with completed energy efficiency retrofits in lighting, HVAC upgrades, water heater tune-ups, and the collection and recycling about 1,000 old refrigerators.
For small business, there is the Power Savings Blitz program offering up to $1,000 of free installed product with a contractor provided through North Bay Hydro.
For larger businesses, that use massive amounts of lighting, there is the Electricity Retrofit Incentive Program (ERIP) available which focuses on a more "prescriptive level" of incentives for new technologies in lighting, motors, HVAC's and electricity systems said Justice
In their audits, they begin by asking questions and examining a company's billing history. With interval meters, they can examine trends on how people use electricity.
Sometimes talk turns to advanced green technologies like solar or wind, but North Bay Hydro COO Todd Wilcox said it's important for customers to understand the capital costs involved and ask themselves if it's the right technology for them.
"I can show you numerous examples of abandoned green technology across Ontario, because there's not a good job in the initial phase of prepare customers for the long-term commitment that the technology takes," said Wilcox. "We work with people to be aware."
Businesses should focus on simple measures. For example, installing modern light switches in offices and warehouses.
"Exhaust those (avenues) first before looking at significant capital investments, and equipment replacement," said Wilcox. "There's still a lot of low-hanging fruit for energy opportunities and we probably don't need to get into the expense of the next generation of technology."
Getting business owners and employees to buy-in and change their habits and behaviours is always greeted with skepticism at first.
"Production is key, energy costs are secondary," said Wilcox.
But with consistent messages and support, case studies show you can achieve between three and five per cent energy efficiency results by simple behaviours such as shutting off lights in unoccupied rooms.
Not far away, he said is the next generation of efficiency programs and smart meter technology including wireless devices that can be connected to show real-time consumption.
www.northbayhydro.on.ca
By IAN ROSS
Northern Ontario Business
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