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Energy Summit 2018: energy management, ISO 50001, CHP and more

August 22, 2018 | By Ellen Cools


Stream chairs Dianne Zimmerman, senior manager, Partners in Project Green; Jon Feldman, senior technical officer, IESO; Eric Langford, energy management specialist, Langford & Associates; and David Arkell, president and CEO, 360 Energy, discuss their takeaways from Day 1 of the Energy Summit. E. Cools

August 22, 2018 — While smart technologies and buildings can help large and small power consumers alike save energy, this year’s Energy Summit focused on Energy Management solutions, Best Practices, and Leadership & Innovation.

Energy Summit 2018 brought together Canada’s energy efficiency experts to help some 400+ delegates learn how energy management systems can improve profitability, how some companies and organizations are leading and innovating in energy usage, as well as to share practical energy solutions for a facility.

The summit was presented by Canadian Industry Partnership for Energy Conservation (CIPEC), Excellence in Manufacturing Consortium (EMC, emccanada.org) and Natural Resources Canada (NRCan). EBMag was also there, serving as both a media partner and reporter.

Our focus was to attend sessions that were not just informative (they all were!), but whose topics could increase your own knowledge of the energy landscape and, thereby, guide your own efforts toward the development of new revenue streams.

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P4P pilot pending

Under the Leadership & Innovation track, one presentation in particular caught my eye: the Independent Electricity Systems Operator’s (ieso.ca) Industrial P4P Pilot, discussed by Alex Tiessen, principal of Posterity Group.

Ontario’s IESO is launching a pilot P4P (Pay-for-Performance) program for industrial facilities to encourage the implementation of more operation and maintenance (O&M) measures as they relate to energy management, Tiessen shared.

Aimed at “all industrial accelerated customers,” the pilot will provide incentives based on the results of the organization’s energy management plan, which must define the proposed boundary area (including the physical boundary and the baseline energy use model), a list of potential energy efficiency projects, and a list of responsible personnel.

A P4P program provides incentives to participants based on actual performance, allowing customers to choose and implement measures that will work best in their situation.

As its base, the new pilot program will rely on the Energy Performance Program (EPP), which is a commercial P4P program IESO developed for customers with facilities across multiple LDC service territories. Tiessen says the EPP has saved an estimated 30,000 MWh (based on 5% savings) since its launch.

Participants in the new P4P Industrial Pilot program must follow IESO’s reporting requirements (e.g. provide two annual reports and all data required under the M&V [measurement & verification] plan), as well as meet M&V requirements. Part of meeting those requirements involves proving the savings are large relative to random or unexplained energy variations, the data is available for all significant independent variables, and the baseline regression model is valid.

“Because participants are being paid based on actual performance, M&V requirements are very important,” Tiessen said.

Following formal acceptance into the pilot and approval of the energy management plan, participants will receive 25% of the total incentive. The remaining 75% of the incentive can be requested at the end of the first and second years of the pilot, provided electricity savings continue into the second year.

Ultimately, the P4P Industrial Pilot aims to achieve savings in smaller or “harder-to-measure” projects, thereby allowing IESO to “de-risk O&M measures from a program perspective” and encourage innovation in the market.

ISO 50001: how big is the gap?

In the last session of Day 1, BC Hydro’s Kevin Wallace gave a presentation called “Bridging the gap between Strategic Energy Management and ISO 50001”.

Wallace noted that ISO 50001 “Energy management” has been rather polarizing; essentially, there are those for the global standard, and those against it. Wallace aimed to quantify the gap between Strategic Energy Management (SEM) and ISO 50001 (i.e. gap size, gap locations), and determine whether becoming ISO 50001-certified really requires that much more work.

First, we have to understand the minimum elements of SEM:

• Customer commitment (from a utility perspective) regarding energy policy and resources
• Planning and implementation
• Monitoring, tracking & reporting

According to Wallace, ISO 50001 fits into the definition of SEM. He then provided a number of case studies (and a detailed report for each) identifying the gaps between their energy management systems and ISO 50001.

One case study looked at Canfor Pulp, Northwood Mill that, based on the gap analysis, had to carry out 155 hours of work (roughly four weeks) before they could meet ISO 50001 certification. In the analysis, Wallace looked at a number of components, including energy policy, general energy planning, energy performance indicators, general implementation and planning, competence, training and awareness.

He highlighted the biggest gaps in the Northwood Mill for Energy Summit delegates, then did the same for a few other cases to give us a better understanding of the differences between ISO 50001 and Strategic Energy Management.

He also discussed the Focus on Energy SEM Leaders Program from the Energy Performance Services (EPS/Canada, pivot.vc/eps). EPS is a consulting firm that implements energy management systems for commercial and industrial companies, including ISO 50001.

In this case study, Wallace says EPS worked with 14 organizations, ranging from food processing to pharmaceuticals, to develop energy management programs, providing cohort events, one-on-one coaching and direct support and performing individual ISO 50001/EMIS audits at each site early in the process.

The companies’ overall starting score, on average, was about 20% of ISO 50001 due to low levels of operational control over Significant Energy Use (SEU), training, measurement, and correcting significant deviations in energy performance.

But today, “half of them have completed ISO 50001, and there are three that are ISO-ready,” Wallace said.

Overall, to close the gap between ISO 50001 and other energy management systems, Wallace suggests looking to the Consortium for Energy Efficiency (CEE, cee1.org) for guidance on Strategic Energy Management for you or your customer’s companies. He also suggests implementing an Energy Management Information System (EMIS).

Alternatively, you can lean on NRCan’s ISO 50001 program, which helps companies move toward certification, or use the U.S. Department of Energy’s ISO 50001-Ready program, which sports an aggregator tool that can be useful in identifying gaps.

The impact of CHP

Thankfully for me, the final presentation I attended, “Strategies to reduce Ontario’s electricity grid GHG emissions,” was delivered in a clear, easy-to-understand way by Aqeel Zaidi, energy solutions manager for Enbridge Gas Distribution.

Zaidi focused on the impact of combined heat and power, with its potential to reduce both emissions and the load on Ontario’s grid. To be clear, CHP does not reduce the load onsite but rather on the overall grid; likewise for gas.

Unfortunately, gas-fired CHP projects submitted after July 1, 2018 are now excluded from IESO’s Conservation Demand Management directive to align with the province’s Conservation First Framework (CFF). This decision puzzles Zaidi, who said “there are no details provided to explain why CHP does not align with climate change policies, [even though] it is acknowledged that it reduces grid demand”.

That said, there are a number of strategies for reducing GHG emissions via CHP. Zaidi discussed how CHP could displace energy derived from nuclear, gas and renewables, and its continual potential for reducing the load on gas and electrical systems. And, as nuclear units undergo refurbishment between 2020 and 2030, CHP could see higher uptake to account for those missing baseload megawatts.

“CHP has the same impact of reducing demand from the grid as other forms of distributed energy such as solar PV and wind, and therefore deserves to be treated accordingly,” Zaidi concluded.

Find your own expertise

Whatever your Canadian jurisdiction, the more you know about energy, incentives, efficiency, pilot programs and the like, the more you can bring to the table when dealing with prospects and clients. Those who can help their clients navigate the myriad of programs and solutions available will position themselves as the go-to service provider for both small and large projects. Turning to experts at events like the Energy Summit helps start you upon your own path of being able to provide energy expertise.


This article originally appeared in the July/August 2018 issue of Electrical Business Magazine.


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