Community Energy Systems
Another Energy Conscious Community takes action
May 30, 2021
Essex County approved their Regional Energy Plan on May 19, 2021. The region is a shining example of what happens when a community becomes “energy conscious”. They take action to reduce energy consumption, emissions, and costs. Essex County was highly motivated to embark on this journey. In 2019 and 2020, the region was under flood watches and warnings for...
Energy Transition: Role for Local Electricity Utilities
February 6, 2017
The energy transition in Ontario is picking up speed. Distributed power generation and storage growing The Electricity Distributors Association has just released a report – The Power to Connect: Advancing Customer-Drive Electricity Solutions for Ontario. The report proposes a new way forward for Ontario’s electricity utilities as distributed energy resources including local, small-scale power generation and storage technologies continue to grow. The...
Provincial policies support thermal energy
July 25, 2016
Thermal energy is a growing theme in provincial land use policies. I attended a workshop last week on two far-reaching provincial policy documents. The two documents were Ontario’s Climate Change Action Plan (CCAP) and the review of the growth plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe. That is to say, Ontario’s developing land use and climate policy framework was the focus of the day. Both documents acknowledge the...
A role for an energy efficiency utility
March 3, 2016
I have often pondered the intrinsic conflict of asking an electricity or gas utility to deliver a program that reduces their customers’ consumption of electricity or gas, respectively. It’s like asking a coffee shop to sell less coffee to save on coffee beans. Of course, the regulator allows the utility to recoup their lost revenue through increased rates and presumably...