Expanded energy conservation program benefits Canadore College

Canadore College is benefiting from an expansion of the province’s Industrial Conservation Initiative, allowing large electricity users to lower electricity costs by up to a third, by reducing energy use during peak hours.

Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault says electricity consumers with average monthly peak demand over one megawatt, like Canadore, are now included, along with consumers with an average monthly peak demand over 500 megawatts.

“When they participate in this program the money that they’re able to save, they can put back into front line services. This is one of the programs that we’re able to enhance through the Fair Hydro Plan to really help some of our large size institutions,” he says.

Canadore President George Burton says they could see significant savings if they achieve their energy saving goals.

“If we can save $250,000 to half a million dollars a year in utility costs, that money then goes back into the institution, so for us, over the life-time of the institution, that’s significant,” he says.

On top of having installed efficient lighting and heating systems, Burton says it’s about being smarter with consumption to get those savings.

“having all the lights on monitors, so if when there’s no activity in the classroom the lights go off, keeping the temperature turned down a couple degrees, like we do at home saves money, making sure that we’re just cooling occupied portions of our building during the summer,” he says.

North Bay Hydro Chief Operating Officer Todd Wilcox says there’s about 10 to 15 companies in the city that could benefit from this program.

“These participants are very important to the economic well-being of North Bay and if we can make them strong and reduce their electricity costs, that means a really healthy North Bay, so this is really good,” he says.

Wilcox also says many more, to the tune of about 300 or 400 businesses locally, could benefit if the threshold was reduced even further to 50 kilowatts.

Minister Thibeault says there are other programs available that can help businesses reduce their bills and suggests they contact North Bay Hydro to learn more, pointing out the local utility has been very progressive with the Save On Energy program, for instance.