FEI-FEVI 2010 EEC Report filed March 31, 2011 - FortisBC

FORTISBC ENERGY INC. AND FORTISBC ENERGY (VANCOUVER ISLAND) INC.
2010 ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND CONSERVATION ANNUAL REPORT
Description
Goals
maximum combustion efficiency of approximately 80% prevails in the market. High
efficiency water heating equipment with thermal efficiencies exceeding
approximately 90% is available; however, the penetration rate of high efficiency
technologies in the DHW market is low 26 , especially for stand-alone DHW plants.
Minimum required water heater efficiency is governed in BC by the British Columbia
Energy Efficiency Act and the Energy Efficiency Standards Regulation, which require
a minimum thermal efficiency of 80%. At present, the federal government does not
regulate minimum required thermal efficiency for commercial gas water heaters.
NRCan has, however, proposed implementing federal regulation of a variety of water
heater types including commercial gas fired water heaters. Some proposed changes
would coincide with future requirements in the United States and would see the
required thermal efficiency of commercial gas fired storage type water tanks climb to
92% by 2016.
The program captures energy savings associated with the heating of domestic hot
water, identified in both the 2006 and 2010 Conservation Potential Reviews (“CPRs”)
as the second largest end use consumer of natural gas, after space heating.
The program offers a financial incentive paid to the builder/developer (new
construction) or account holder (retrofits or new construction) to encourage the use
of high efficiency appliances in standalone DHW heating applications. Such sources
include dedicated DHW high efficiency boilers and storage type water heaters.
FortisBC’s current boiler programs provide an incentive to generate hot water from a
high efficiency source in combination Heat / DHW applications; however, a
significant gap in market coverage existed prior to the launch of the Efficient
Commercial Water Heater program in the case of “stand-alone” DHW systems.
The program primarily appeals to commercial customers that typically exhibit high
domestic hot water usage such as:
• Commercial kitchens;
• Multi-unit residential buildings;
• Hotels/motels; and
• Laundries.
• Reduce commercial sector gas consumption by encouraging the installation
and use of high as opposed to standard efficiency water heaters for
domestic hot water heating in commercial buildings.
• Increase year over year participation rates in view of maximizing gas savings
and bringing about market transformation.
• Educate commercial customers about the advantages of high efficiency
water heaters and provide an incentive to facilitate the purchase of high
efficiency technology.
• Maintain a program TRC score greater than 1.0 and optimize the proportion
of incentives over administration and marketing costs.
• Prepare the way for and support any provincial or federal regulation
requiring increased water heater efficiency.
• Given that one of the targets for this program is multifamily residential
buildings, this program will help to satisfy clause 3(a) of the DSM Regulation,
26
“Measures and Assumptions for Demand Side Management (DSM) Planning”, Navigant Consulting, April 16,
2009.
SECTION 4: COMMERCIAL ENERGY EFFICIENCY PROGRAM AREA Page 66