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FEBRUA RY 2017 | 43 Energy Management PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY WSP CANADA INC. W Energy management tools and incentives help companies reach their goals and exceed standards by NATALIE BRUCKNER-MENCHELLI When it comes to energy savings, a great deal of focus has been placed on technologies that will help us go above and beyond existing standards. However, unless the owner or operator of a building has an indepth understanding of how those technologies work, the people who would benefit could in fact be missing out on maximizing those energy efficiency measures. This is a concern for many in the energy manage- ment industry and a reason why there has been a shift in focus onto the process of monitoring, analyzing, controlling and conserving energy. Every business has a different energy profile and different operating needs, and with increasingly strin- gent regulations and revisions being made to existing standards, there is more demand than ever to better understand the role of energy management. "Whether we are talking about new or existing buildings, what drives energy efficiency within the building comes down to how you operate it. You can have a building designed with all the best technologies, but it can end up using more energy than a building without. Documentation is key. Often all the informa- tion on how the building operates is in the building operator's head. There is no documentation on how it is being operated, so it can be very difficult to improve your energy measures," explains Curtis Loblick, senior project manager, Williams Engineering Canada. Two critical aspects to energy management include establishing a baseline that allows an energy perfor- mance comparison before and after a change is made, and analytics to allow real-time monitoring. "Green building programs have driven clients to begin documenting their energy to enable them to take on energy management themselves. As a result we are also starting to see a lot more metering and analytics companies becoming prevalent in the market place," says Loblick. "What we haven't seen so much of is sub metering occurring in the mechanical room. However, interest in this area is growing. Building owners are starting to install multimeters in mechanical rooms that can record how much energy the chillers, pumps and lights are using, as well as all the various compo- nents within a building." Another factor driving the energy management sec- tor is changes to rules and regulations. Loblick takes the Alberta carbon levy, which came into force on January 1, 2017, as one example. "Alberta is severely lagging behind other provinces in Canada with their energy management practices. When the cost of natural gas dropped in Alberta, so too did the demand for energy management. But now we are adding another utility cost into the mix, and as a result we are seeing many municipalities promoting energy audits," explains Loblick. "You can no longer shortcut on energy efficient technologies because of the new energy code; it's not an option to opt out." Douglas Webber, WSP's VP, Sustainability and Energy, agrees that energy management is increas- ingly important for owners and managers of existing buildings. "One trend we are seeing is deep retrofits of existing buildings. Historically much of our work was connected with property managers who, through incremental improvement, maintained their build- ings as Class A. They saw a strong Energy Star score as part of that. Now there's more of an interest from those same landlords to abandon the incremental approach and, through significant investment, improve energy by up to 50 percent," says Webber. He adds that some clients are interested in going as far as net zero and WSP is working on a number of pilot projects to develop a plan for this and test via- bility. WSP is currently engaged with a new client to work on real-time energy monitoring and web-based reporting for their portfolio. "We have been develop- ing our approach to offer clients software that cap- tures real-time data, that interprets the findings, and distills those findings into easy to digest informa- tion. We couple this analytics with customer service. We chair a monthly meeting with building operations teams to review the data and agree on action plans at each building. We've seen too many projects where an energy audit is completed, but the recommendations are never implemented. By providing better data and personal support, we can educate and guide building teams toward better energy management." With Ontario's mandatory energy reporting com- ing into play and energy costs remaining top of mind, Webber says that WSP is seeing a change in conversa- tion from energy to carbon reductions and manage- ment. Earlier this year, WSP partnered with EllisDon on the Carbon Impact Initiative. "The initiative was driven by EllisDon who recognized that with the Ontario and Federal Government both focusing on carbon there is a vacuum to fill. Policymakers say that we collectively need to reduce carbon dramatically, but how that can be done isn't clear yet. The initiative was created to show that we know the way. More for- profit companies are stepping up and presenting deci- sion makers with solutions as to how their objectives can be achieved. We understand where they want to go, and we know how to get them there." The Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) is actively working with Ontario's 70-plus local hydro companies' partners to deliver customers pro- grams to assist with energy management. And like WSP and Williams, the majority of activity they are seeing today is with existing buildings due to the exist- ing building stock, however the IESO offers incentives for both new build and retrofits. For new buildings there are programs to incentiv- ize building developers to go above and beyond the building code. "The more energy efficient equipment they can build into the facilities, over and above the Ontario Building code, the more energy efficient that building will be," says Rob Edwards from the IESO. Edwards adds that with a revision to Ontario's Building Code that will be implemented in 2017 (requiring large buildings and small non-residential buildings to increase their energy efficiency by 13 per- cent compared to the December 31, 2011 benchmark), expectations for energy management are becoming increasingly more stringent. In order to help building owners/operators achieve this goal, the IESO is working closely with consumers to allow them to delve deeper into their projects. "The old adage that you can't manage what you don't measure is so true; we have incentive programs to assist busi- nesses to install metering equipment and monitor their use and make changes on the fly," explains Edwards. In addition to the Save on Energy Retrofit incentives (which promotes technologies such as LEDs, VFDs, and metering and monitoring equipment), the IESO also offers incentives for eligible participants to take the Building Operator Certification (BOC) program; an eight-module, nine-day competency-based train- ing and certification program, which offers facilities personnel the improved job skills and knowledge to transform workplaces to be more comfortable, energy- efficient and environmentally friendly. "This has really taken off in Ontario with large com- mercial real estate organizations who are signing up their building operators to participate in the program," says Edwards. And it's not only gaining traction in Ontario. "We had a couple of companies from Ontario The Information Age

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