Engineering: What energy saving incentives are available for your farm?

Friday, May 30, 2008

Here are several places to look for help in cutting your energy costs. Make sure that you are eligible and that you follow all steps in the process 

by RON MACDONALD

The energy world is continuing to evolve at a fast pace. The purpose of this article is to let swine farmers know that there are financial incentives to assist them with energy improvements on the farm.

It is important to ensure that you are eligible and that you follow all the steps before any purchase to ensure that you are not disqualified. 

Ontario Power Authority.
Most, if not all, farms in Ontario are covered. However, your local Electrical Distribution Company (LDC) must be a participant or you will not be eligible.

See the web site at: http://business.everykilowattcounts.com/agri/

There are two main programs. Prescriptive programs are ones where the program is clearly defined, and products or systems are already qualified. These incentive programs will pay a part of the cost for installing qualifying energy efficient technology. The main areas covered include:

- Lighting, including compact fluorescent and conversion to T8 and T5 fluorescent lighting;
- Three-phase motors;
- Electric creep heat pads;
- Electric creep heat pad controllers;
- Creep heat high temperature cut-out thermostats;
- 24-inch fans only meeting strict eligibility requirements

Custom track.
This track is for farms using a more specific solution to electricity-efficiency retrofitting. For these projects, all technology equipment and systems are evaluated on the basis of their power and energy performance improvement. The incentive offered is based specifically on the level of improvement.

The incentives are based on the results of calculations from each track's specific worksheet.

Natural Resources Canada (NRCan).
Natural Resources Canada offers financial incentives on a wide range of energy efficiency technologies, including any heating fuel as well as electricity.

NRCan grants are based on the first year savings. The grant is $10/GJ/year. One GJ of savings is the same as saving about 41 litres of propane, 28 cubic metres of natural gas or 277 kWh of electricity.

NRCan eligible projects include: building envelope, lighting systems, ventilation systems, water-heating systems and other energy efficiency measures such as replacement or retrofit of inefficient equipment, fuel switching to renewable or waste fuels (e.g. solar walls, wind power, biomass), application of energy-efficient transformers, waste heat recovery (e.g. from flue gas, steam condensate, exhaust air), process insulation upgrades and improvements.

The project must be evaluated by a professional engineer or certified engineer technologist. The fee for this can be included in the project cost. The process must be followed or the project will not receive funding. The engineer can and should assist you.

The steps are as follows:
- Register as an Energy Innovator with NRCan.
- Conduct the evaluation.
- Apply for the funding.
After approval is received, the project can start. For further information, see the web site www.oee.nrcan.gc.ca/industrial/

Natural gas utilities.
Both Union Gas and Enbridge Gas offer incentives for energy studies as well as certain technologies. See their web sites at:
- http://www.uniongas.com/business/otherci/
energyefficiency/programs/programindex.asp
- https://portal-plumprod.cgc.enbridge.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=355&PageID=0&cached=true&mode=2&userID=2  BP

Ron MacDonald, P.Eng., is an agricultural engineer with Agviro Inc. in Guelph.