Team Power Smart

Summer 2014

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BEHIND THE SCENES AT POWER SMART POWER SMART IS MORE THAN REBATES AND REWARDS, IT'S 25 YEARS OF WORK WITH MANUFACTURERS, RETAILERS AND GOVERNMENT BY THE NUMBERS POWER SMART 25 quarter of a century ago, running six holiday light strings for a few hours a day throughout December added $15 to your BC Hydro bill. Today, it will cost you 33 cents. For that, you can thank BC Hydro Power Smart, which made B.C. a world leader in the adoption of energy-saving holiday LEDs with a new program back in 2002. Demand was so high in the early days that some British Columbians stole LEDs from public lighting displays. "For a while, there were more seasonal LED lights being sold in B.C. than in the rest of North America combined," recalls Power Smart director Steve Hobson. Demand for electricity will continue to grow in B.C., because the population, economy and advances in technology are growing too. Today, the average Canadian home has at least six more electrical devices than in 1990. Power Smart's job is to reduce the impact of that technological and economic growth. The province's Clean Energy Act directs BC Hydro to reduce growth in demand – by efficiencies, Power Smart behaviour and marketing products like those holiday LEDs – by 66 per cent by 2020. Power Smart works with everyone from homeowners, to laundromats, to pulp mills and even local govern- ments to help reduce electricity consumption. And to help them succeed, Power Smart works behind the scenes, pushing for more energy-efficient products and higher efficiency standards through relationships with product manufacturers, retail stores and government. "We're very active. People don't see our back- end work with government policies, with manufacturers, or our influence in the U.S.," says Hobson. "[The population of] B.C. makes up only about one per cent of North America, but we have a disproportionately large influence on what happens across the continent." HOLIDAY LIGHTS FOR $55? Power Smart got rolling with the promotion of holiday LEDs only after a business development manager discovered a small U.S. startup producing strings of seasonal LEDs and brought some home to B.C. BC Hydro engineers then worked with the manufacturer to adapt them to the Canadian climate and get them ENERGY STAR ® -certified. And then there was the next step – convincing retailers to stock a 35-light string that initially cost $55. "So Power Smart subsidized them with rebates for customers until sales were high enough that the cost to make the lights came down on their own," recalls Hobson. Power Smart provides rebates and other funding support for business clients as well, offering rebates on hundreds of products. Canfor Taylor's pulp mill near Fort St. John saves more than $1 million a year on electricity through a variety of efficiencies. That makes for a happy customer, and the 40 gigawatt hours of annual savings is equivalent to powering 3,600 B.C. homes. RAISING THE BAR ON EFFICIENCY Behind the scenes, Power Smart has been active A Photos: Peter Holst, Getty, iStock few hours a day throughout December added $15 to your BC Hydro bill. Today, it will cost you 33 cents. For that, you can thank BC Hydro Power Smart, which made B.C. a world leader in the adoption of energy-saving holiday LEDs with a new program back in 2002. Demand was so high in the early days that some British Columbians stole LEDs from public lighting displays. "For a while, there were more seasonal LED lights director Steve Hobson. Demand for electricity will continue to grow in B.C., because the population, economy and advances in technology are growing too. Today, the average Canadian home has at least six more electrical devices than in 1990. Power Smart's job is to reduce the impact of that technological and economic growth. The province's Clean Energy Act to reduce growth in demand – by efficiencies, Power Smart behaviour and marketing products like those holiday cent by 2020. Power Smart works with everyone from homeowners, to laundromats, to pulp mills and even local govern ments to help reduce electricity consumption. And to help them succeed, Power Smart works behind the scenes, pushing for more energy-efficient products and higher efficiency standards through relationships with product manufacturers, retail stores and government. "We're very active. People don't see our back- end work with government policies, with manufacturers, or A Power Smart Director, Steve Hobson, with power- saving LED holiday lights. DOING MORE WITH LESS TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO, your fridge probably didn't do much else except keep your food cold – and it used about 950 KWh a year to do it. Today, refrigerators filter water, make ice and even let you control the temperature of individual drawers – all using about 450 KWh per year. Dishwashers and washing machines too, are also about three times more efficient than older models. Technology has come a long way, and manufacturers are making appliances and electronics do a lot more with a lot less energy – which is great for your hydro bill. But at the same time, with devices like home computers, video game consoles and cellphones, the average home has six more energy-consuming devices than it did 25 years ago. That makes it more important than ever to look for the ENERGY STAR label when you're shopping for new appliances and electronics. That always-on set-top box can cost you $44 a year in electricity use, but the most efficient ENERGY STAR model can cut your bill to just $19. BCHYDRO.COM/25

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