Ontario Regulation 507/18 requires municipalities to report annually on their energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions. The regulation also requires municipalities to update their energy conservation and demand management (CDM) plan every five years. This CDM fulfills the regulatory requirement and presents a path forward to achieving a full optimized energy management program within the City of Barrie.
The City Energy Management Branch (EMB) is mandated to optimize the energy performance of all City owned and operated infrastructure with a goal to reduce utility consumption and the corresponding costs.
The 2020–2024 Conservation & Demand Management Plan establishes three targets that capture the energy impact for operations at all facilities, water and wastewater infrastructure. These are intensity-based targets, which allow for benchmarking against other facilities and are an effective means of measuring performance for process based operations such as water and wastewater. These targets include:
- Facility Target: Reduce the energy intensity of facility operations by 24%, representing an annual operating cost savings of over $700,000.
- Water & Wastewater Target: Reduce the energy intensity required to produce drinking water and process wastewater effluent by 10%, representing an annual operating cost savings of $220,000.
Combined, these targets represent 85% of the City’s energy use and cost. Realising these targets will reduce current overall energy consumption by 18% and generate an annual cost avoidance exceeding $900,000. Achieving these targets will involve implementing key priority actions targeted within eight elements of an energy management program, including:
- Commitment
- Planning
- Organization
- Projects
- Financing
- Monitoring, Tracking & Reporting
- Training