Increasing energy efficiency in BC
We’re always looking for ways to help our customers save energy and money as well as lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In 2019, we almost doubled our spending in conservation and energy management programs, and plan to almost triple spending by 2022. Not only was $74.5 million invested in natural gas efficiency programs in 2019, we will see this increase to $96.7 million by 2022. We've also continually increased investment in our electricity efficiency programs from $6.6 million in 2016 to more than $10 million 2019 and this will continue to increase to $11.4 million by 2022. This increase in spending will provide more opportunities for our customers to increase energy efficiency and save money in their homes and businesses while allowing us to support municipalities and industries working to meet the province’s climate action goals.
We’re working together to reduce GHG emissions in BC. We’ve partnered with the province through their CleanBC program to provide integrated incentives and information to customers for energy-efficient upgrades like electric vehicle chargers, home renovations and customized energy conservation measures for commercial buildings.
2019 rebate highlights
With record-high funding for these programs, more customers took the opportunity to complete energy-efficient upgrades. We provided more than 77,000 natural gas rebates, helping our customer improve the energy efficiency of their homes and businesses. We also provided more than 35,000 electricity rebates for energy-efficient products such as appliances and lighting.
One of our most popular rebates is the Appliance Maintenance Program and in 2019 participation more than doubled over the previous year. This program is important for our customers as it encourages regular maintenance to keep natural gas appliances operating safely and efficiently.
Another partnership that was a highlight of 2019 was our collaboration with BC Hydro, CleanBC, BC Non-profit Housing and BC Housing to create the Social Housing Retrofit Support Program. This innovative program addresses the specific concerns of the multi-family social housing sector by helping social housing providers with financial incentives and professional support to implement energy-efficiency projects that help their residents live more comfortably and affordably. Working together with our partners, we made it easier for social housing providers to access various sources of funding, making energy-efficiency upgrades more accessible and affordable.
This program was awarded the prize for Outstanding Program Design and Implementation by the Association of Energy Services Professionals (AESP) and Ariana Arguello, program manager at FortisBC (middle), accepted this award from John Hargrove (left) and Amber Stewart (right) from the AESP.
Helping businesses reach their energy conservation goals
Working with businesses, large or small, to provide them with direct and customized support to meet their specific needs is a way we’re helping make energy efficiency more accessible for all our customers.
We teamed up with GreenStep Solutions, a leading sustainability consultant, to help more than 500 small and medium sized businesses in Kelowna, Penticton and Rossland with free basic energy assessments, identifying energy and cost savings opportunities. Taking the next step forward, 188 of these businesses committed to further energy savings by completing a more in-depth assessment and acting on some of these opportunities.
Among the organizations most committed to energy efficiency, the winners of our 2019 Efficiency in Action Awards demonstrated some of the innovative work being done in the province. We’re proud to support organizations across the province to help them achieve their energy and emissions reduction goals. As the Public Sector – Federal award recipient, the Pacific Environmental Science Centre in North Vancouver achieved carbon-neutral status at a federal government research centre by implementing many energy-efficiency upgrades and purchasing 100 per cent Renewable Natural Gas from FortisBC. These awards recognized a total of eight organizations for their continued commitment to improve energy efficiency and lower GHG emissions in an affordable way by taking advantage of our rebate programs.
We recognized Molycop Canada, a Kamloops supplier of mining consumables, as the 2019 Industrial Customer award winner. Their dedication to improving energy efficiency spans over the last decade and they’ve taken part in FortisBC rebates totaling more than $400,000, helping meet BC’s climate action goals in an affordable way.
Advancing cutting edge technologies in BC
As we saw, many customers participated in our rebate programs in 2019, but did you know many of these programs started as pilot projects? Before our rebate programs are available to customers, we test the technology in select homes and businesses to not only gather customer feedback on the technology, but to determine if it will work as a rebate program. In fact, the innovative technologies team was recently recognized for this work and accepted the Excellence in Technology Innovation Advancement award from E Source, a leading utility research and consultancy organization.
One pilot project the innovative technologies team is working on is the Gas Absorption Heat Pump (GAHP) Pilot. We installed 14 units across seven commercial sites with each unit providing both space and water heating. These units are showing great initial results in achieving high energy savings as we’ve seen these units perform at over 100 per cent efficiency, demonstrating another way we can help customers reduce their energy use.
Meet the team who has worked on this innovative pilot project: Jim Kobialko (left), Marysol Escamilla (middle left), Mila Barbour (middle right) and Rav Deol (right). They’re expecting the final results of this pilot in August 2020.
Investing in infrastructure to meet customers’ needs
We invest in our infrastructure to ensure we can continue to deliver the safe and reliable energy our customers need 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
We want to thank our customers for their patience as we completed the final portion of the natural gas line upgrades in the Lower Mainland. In 2019, more than $99 million was invested in this project, ensuring this important piece of our natural gas system continues to deliver the reliable energy our customers depend on for decades to come. The maintenance and growth of our infrastructure is critical to meet the energy needs of our customers today and ensures we can meet the energy needs of tomorrow, including the use of more renewable gases in our system as we transition to a lower carbon energy future.
We connected with local businesses throughout Vancouver, Burnaby and Coquitlam to address their concerns during times of project construction and we worked together to let the public know their businesses remained open during these times. This is how we met Enrique Quiroga, owner of Doppio Zero Pizza along Como Lake Avenue in Coquitlam, and we helped spread the word that customers could still enjoy the local Italian cuisine at his restaurant during construction.
We’re working to complete safety and seismic upgrades to the Corra Linn Dam, helping us to continue providing clean electricity to our customers in the Southern Interior and Kootenays for years to come. Last year, we finished upgrading three spillway gates as we continue our $69 million upgrade project running until 2022.
Customer safety is always a top priority
The safety of our customers and employees is always a top priority. From talking with customers about power line safety to encouraging safe digging practices, it’s our responsibility to help our customers stay safe around natural gas and electricity.
We work with many BC municipalities to help them reduce the amount of damages to our system. In 2019, we celebrated the City of Kamloops for their commitment to safe digging as they saw a 65 per cent reduction in natural gas line damages over the last ten years. We worked with the BC Common Ground Alliance, BC 1 Call and other partners, to host ground disturbance seminars in Vancouver, Surrey, Prince George and Kelowna. More than 210 contractors attended these one-day training sessions where we highlighted the importance of safe digging and demonstrated how to properly locate underground utility lines.
These two damage prevention investigators, Tara Garrett and Mark Lawson, were part of the team who investigated 285 damage incidents to our natural gas system by contractors. You may also see them in your neighbourhood proactively visiting construction sites, reminding contractors about safe digging practices.
Educating the next generation
We’re supporting BC teachers with curriculum-connected lesson plans spanning from Kindergarten to Grade 12 as part of our Energy Leaders program. Developed by BC teachers, the lesson plans help students learn about safety, energy solutions and conservation. In 2019, the Energy Leaders program had more than 1,300 teachers registered, a 135 per cent increase over 2018 and more than 1,100 lessons were downloaded from the website reaching about 21,000 students.
We work with the BC Lions through our Energy Champions program where players visit elementary schools across the province with an interactive presentation about the importance of energy conservation and environmental responsibility – showing how students can be Energy Champions too. Teachers can also request an Energy is Awesome presentation delivered by our street team. This team of enthusiastic employees engage with students from kindergarten to grade seven about energy conservation and safety, bringing interactive props like a demonstration natural gas meter and leaving educational materials for the teachers to give to their students.
Helping customers one call at a time
Our customer service representatives speak with thousands of customers every day to help them with anything from account changes to personalized payment options. These dedicated teams received seven Service Quality Measurement awards in 2019, further showing how they are working hard to help our customers.
