Media centre details

Showing support for business owners during Small Business Week

Oct 15, 2020

Surrey, BC October 15, 2020: Small Business Week, October 18 – 24, is an opportunity to focus on the important role small businesses have in communities across the province and find ways to support them, especially during the difficult time brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. FortisBC is helping by increasing incentives for energy efficient upgrades and connecting business owners with free energy consultations, making it more affordable and accessible for small businesses to invest in high-efficiency equipment that will lower operational costs year over year.

“We’ve supported business owners with our commercial and industrial incentive programs for years and we want them to know we will continue to be there for them, through this pandemic and beyond,” said James Allen, program manager, commercial and industrial, conservation and energy management.  “By increasing incentive amounts and connecting business owners with free energy advice, we are not only supporting them as they make investments in energy efficiency upgrades but it also allows us to continue to make progress towards our 30BY30 target.”

During this time with less physical traffic into storefronts, small businesses may be looking to learn more about how to cut operating costs by making their operations more energy efficient. FortisBC’s Small Business Program allows business owners to apply for a virtual energy consultation to help them find low-cost and no-cost ways to save energy in their businesses. Right now, there are increased rebates for everything from natural gas space and water heating equipment to natural gas commercial kitchen equipment and also lighting rebates for FortisBC electricity customers.

The incentives are designed to help cover a portion of the initial costs of upgrading to high-efficiency equipment. Just last year FortisBC’s commercial and industrial incentive programs helped conserve more than 580,000 gigajoules of natural gas, the equivalent energy use of heating more than 6,700 homes for a year.  Small businesses looking to take advantage of these increased incentive amounts can request information on what targeted upgrades they can complete to help them conserve as much energy as possible.

Increasing energy efficiency in homes and businesses is a key priority in FortisBC’s 30BY30 target – an ambitious goal of reducing their customers’ greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent by 2030 – and the company continues to find ways to progress toward this goal even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To qualify for the bigger offers on natural gas furnaces, business owners must have the units installed and the invoice dated between October 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021. The additional bigger offers are available until December 31, 2021 and business owners have 365 days after the purchase date of the products to submit their application and supporting documentation. Applicants must be a FortisBC natural gas customer under any rate class except Rate 1. They must be a property owner or long-term leaseholder of an existing commercial building or property owner of a new commercial project. To learn more about FortisBC’s bigger offers, visit fortisbc.com/bigger. To apply for a small business virtual assessment, visit fortisbc.com/smallbusiness.

 

Media contact

Lauren Lea
Corporate Communications Specialist  
FortisBC
Phone: 604-312-8158
Email: [email protected] 
fortisbc.com
@fortisBC
24-hour media line: 1-855-322-6397

FortisBC is a regulated utility focused on providing safe and reliable energy, including natural gas, electricity and propane. FortisBC employs more than 2,400 British Columbians and serves approximately 1.2 million customers in 135 B.C. communities. FortisBC owns and operates two liquefied natural gas storage facilities and four regulated hydroelectric generating plants, approximately 7,200 kilometres of transmission and distribution power lines, and approximately 48,700 kilometres of natural gas transmission and distribution pipelines. FortisBC Inc. and FortisBC Energy Inc. do business as FortisBC. FortisBC is indirectly, wholly owned by Fortis Inc., a leader in the North American electric and gas utility business. FortisBC uses the FortisBC name and logo under license from Fortis Inc. Additional information can be accessed at fortisinc.com or sedar.com.