Retrofit program news and events

Response to COVID-19

Effective Monday, March 16, 2020, the IESO has requested that its program delivery vendors refrain from any in-person interactions with new or existing customers of the Save on Energy programs. This includes site visits to customer facilities. 

Participants of the Save on Energy Retrofit program can follow up directly with the Technical Reviewer should they have any questions related to their application process or can contact Retrofit Support at  1-844-303-5542 or retrofit@ieso.ca. New project applications will continue to be accepted. 

This IESO is implementing these temporary precautionary measures in response to COVID-19 to safeguard the health of its employees, customers and vendors, and to continue to fulfill its responsibility to ensure the reliable operation of the Ontario electricity grid. 

As the situation with COVID-19 continues to unfold, the IESO is paying close attention to statements by the World Health Organization and government entities here in Canada.

The IESO will continue to provide updates and a list of FAQs can be found here.

Update to Horticulture worksheet

The province-wide Horticulture custom worksheet has been updated to address a change to the base line design for energy-efficiency LED Inter-lighting design.  These changes are effective as of March 5, 2020. 

The LED Inter-lighting design will no longer accept a top-lighting base case.  The 40% allowance between top-lighting base case PPFD and an energy efficient LED inter-lighting PPFD have been removed. All base case PPFD and energy efficient PPFD are required to have a 10% maximum variance.  

An energy efficient LED inter-lighting design will now require a T5 or T8 inter-lighting baseline design otherwise an error message will appear in cell G43 of the “System Design Assumptions” tab.  

All existing pre-approved applications will not be affected.

Helping Greenhouses Grow

Ontario’s Greenhouses are a large consumer of electricity across the province, consuming more than 1.4 MWh per year and consumption is expected to grow to 3.9 MWh by 2024.  

The recently released Greenhouse Energy Profile Study summarizes how energy is used across the sector and provides insight into how greenhouses can utilize energy efficiency and innovative solutions to help their businesses grow. 

The energy it takes to power a greenhouse all adds up. Through incentives for equipment upgrades and replacements like switching out lighting or installing high-efficiency pumps greenhouses can significantly reduce the amount of electricity required to grow their crops. 

With opportunities available through the Save on Energy Retrofit program, there is plenty of energy savings potential. 

Visit saveonenergy.ca/Agriculture to learn more.

New incentives through the Retrofit Program

A series of changes to certain measures and incentive levels in the Retrofit program will take effect on August 12, 2019.

New incentives cover products on the market that were identified as a priority by the industry and offer customers more choice to meet their energy-efficiency needs. The additions include more options for LED lighting as well as some prescriptive compressed air measures. 
 
Retrofit changes also include reductions to incentive levels for some existing lighting measures, with the exception of exit signs and lighting controls.

In addition, the IESO has been working to reduce the processing times for Retrofit applications, and the timelines for review have been reduced to two weeks. With these faster turnaround times, customers are able to begin projects sooner to achieve more savings over the long term. 
 
For further details on the program changes and a listing of the new measures and incentives, please visit the Retrofit program update webpage.

Please note that the updated Retrofit worksheets will be available on the website on August 12, 2019.

Update on the Retrofit program

Starting May 13, 2019 the following changes will take effect.

• Increasing the minimum incentive levels. For a prescriptive project, the new minimum will be $500 (from $100) and for a custom project, the new minimum will be $1500 (from $500).
  • Customers can still bundle measures within an application to achieve the new minimum incentive level.
• Placing a cap on prescriptive incentives at the lesser of:
  • the prescriptive incentive amount as shown in the Retrofit Portal; or
  • 50 per cent of the eligible costs, which will now include installation and disposal costs.
• Removing the Tenant Sub-Metering Advance incentive, a rarely used program option.
• Performing minor patches and updates to the Retrofit Portal.

Changes will only affect new applications submitted on or after May 13.

If you have any questions about the changes or the Retrofit program in general, please contact retrofit@ieso.ca or call the Retrofit support line at 1-844-303-5542.