EPC lighting upgrades receive over $200K in Hydro One incentives

By Patricia Lebouf | January 30, 2020 | Local
On Jan. 23, Hydro One presented those involved in the retrofitting of lights at Garrison Petawawa with an incentive cheque worth $202,094.47. Dundonald Hall, where the photo is taken, is one of the buildings benefitting from new LED lighting. From left are Melanie Cyr, Contract Coordinator for DCC; Mike Goulard, DCC Energy Manager; 4th Canadian Division Support Group Commander Colonel Louis Lapointe; Sobhan Chowdhury, Project Manager; Harry Schuster, Construction Coordinator; Joe Zerdin, Manager of Large Distribution Accounts at Hydro One; Michele Finney, Account Executive for the East at Hydro One; Caleb Wagner, Site Manager of Johnson Controls; Captain Jason Martin, Acting Real Property Operations Detachment Petawawa Officer Commanding; Cassia Correau, Energy Solution Performance Specialist and Joan Behnke, Reality Asset Manager. Photo by Patricia Leboeuf, Petawawa Post.

Garrison Petawawa has received $202,094.47 in incentives from Hydro One for lighting retrofits, with another $150,000 coming at a later time.

Retrofitting the lighting in buildings across the Garrison is just one of many parts of the ongoing Energy Performance Contract (EPC) project.

The project was established in 2018 to reduce energy consumption and increase energy efficiency at the garrison. Many initiatives are completed while others are still ongoing. They include new LED lighting retrofits, new Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning (HVAC) controls, adding Variable Frequency Drives (VFD) to pumps and vent fans as well as better insulation, control optimization and minor repairs, and modulating energy demand at peak times.

This project is beneficial in a number ways, the most obvious being that the Garrison will be saving a considerable amount of money on utility bills - an anticipated $1.6 million per year within the first year of the project’s completion.

“It gets injected right back into our Garrison’s projects, either in maintenance or new projects, so it is great to have this money that we didn’t have before and that we can put into newer priorities,” said 4th Canadian Division Support Group (4 CDSG) Commander Colonel (Col) Louis Lapointe.

The EPC is also going to help achieve the base’s goal of going green, as well as vastly cutting down its energy consumption.

“We are going to save almost 5,500 tons of CO2 per year,” said Sobhan Chowdhury, Project Manager.

The Government of Canada has made a commitment to reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 and hopes to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

“To meet that goal, we need this and projects (like this) to meet that,” said Chowdhury, adding the EPC is helping the Garrison reduce its GHG emissions by 16 per cent.

With incentives as well as energy savings, the project is paying for itself without compromising the comfort of the soldiers who work and live in these buildings, he said.

He noted there does need to be more awareness of the project’s benefits and the importance of going green as a whole, especially on military installments.

“If people don’t buy into it, there won’t be any success,” said Chowdhury.

The EPC is being undertaken by Defence Construction Canada (DCC). They plan on looking for additional incentives to save even more while undergoing these garrison-wide retrofits.

“We are getting back a lot and this is not the end of it,” said Melanie Cyr, Contract Coordinator for DCC.

Retrofitting lights is just one part of the project; other initiatives will also save substantial funds and energy, confirmed Mike Goulard, Energy Manager for DCC.

Hydro One presented the project manager and those involved with the retrofit at Dundonald Hall with the cheque on Jan. 23.

“It is great to see so many partners in helping the base achieve our goals,” said Joe Zerdin, Manager of Large Customer Accounts Distribution at Hydro One.

“In terms of the province as a whole, these initiatives will defer assets, defer costs and make ourselves more efficient and more attractive to businesses to come to our province,” he remarked about finding better ways of using lighting.