I HAVE BEEN WRITING about energy efficiency as a critical component to going 100 per cent renewable for a while and have shown how it can help individual households and businesses reduce their bill by as much as 50 per cent.
However, to date energy efficiency seems not to be getting serious enough attention by many households or businesses. It seems that most people don’t believe it’s a credible realistic approach to having a significant impact on the operating cost.
The adoption of LED lighting has been seeing a relatively good response from households and businesses, but there seems not to be any appreciation that energy efficiency includes a lot more than just LED retro-fitting.
Earlier this year I had the good fortune of being introduced to a company that has proven that energy efficiency is a credible and effective approach to reducing the energy used by a country.
Efficiency One has the distinction of being the first energy efficiency utility in Canada. It operates in Nova Scotia and is regulated by the government like the electricity utility company. This energy efficiency utility is independent from the power utility company and the government. It is also held accountable for the reduction targets it must achieve each year and maintain year on year.
This started with the government of Nova Scotia recognising the importance of energy efficiency and passing the Efficiency Nova Scotia Corporation Act, creating a non-profit independent administrator of energy efficiency and conservation services in the province.
In 2010 Efficiency Nova Scotia saved the government 82 gigawatt hours (GWH) of energy. Then it increased the saves every year to achieve a staggering 165 GWH in 2013, which accounted for 1.5 per cent of total load.
To put this in context: the average consumption per home in Nova Scotia is 100 000 kilowatt hours (KWh) per year year so 165 GWH savings effectively means 16 500 homes removed permanently from the grid.
This level of saving sounds very high but if we look at it as a percentage of total consumption, a 1.5 per cent reduction would be achievable. Using energy efficiency as a tool to achieve meaningful reductions, energy consumption has been proven to be the cheapest way to do this.
Barbados has set itself a target of 22 per cent by 2029. At 1.5 per cent a year, it would take 15 years to achieve 22 per cent. I know there has been a reduction in our consumption in the last three years, but there is no deliberate programme in place to independently track the reduction, quantify it and know the reason for it.
What we need is to have a very specific programme for energy efficiency, one that is independently responsible for programmes to achieve the targets with an agreed specific way to measure it.
We need to accept that energy efficiency is not a destination, but a journey. It’s embracing and implementing a number of structured planned approaches to the way we consume energy at a national, commercial and residential level.
We can learn a lot from what was accomplished through Nova Scotia’s structured approach. Many businesses accomplished significant operational savings with a comprehensive approach to energy efficiency.
A company called Oxford Frozen Foods in Nova Scotia was able to save $500 000 per year and a health facility was able to save $1.6 million per year. These are incredible savings that should demonstrate that energy efficiency is worth being taken seriously by businesses.
These results from these Canadian companies seem incredible and for most people they would seem too good to be true but I have proven locally that these levels of savings are very real.
Achieving these significant savings will not be easy and although it seems simple in some instances, it makes good sense to contract a company that is experienced in this field to advise and guide you.
Is an energy efficiency utility the right approach for Barbados? If it was up to me, the answer would be yes. We need to understand that as we move further into adopting renewable energy, energy efficiency will not just be a nice thing to do, but it would be a critical component of our growth and sustainable energy strategy.
Even embracing a limitless resource like the sun and the wind has its limits. We cannot install limitless solar panels or wind turbines.
So as energy gets cheaper and our economy grows, we have to reduce to expand. It simply doesn’t make sense investing millions of dollars in expanding a solar plant when powering megawatts of wastage.
I believe that, at minimum, we need to adopt a strong sustained energy-efficient strategy for this island and the sooner we start, the more likely we will be successful when it becomes more critical. Therefore, we will either need an energy efficiency utility or a specific section in the department of energy whose mandate is to drive energy efficiency nationwide.
Jerry Franklin is managing director of EnSmart Inc. He is an engineer, energy auditor, equipment tester and energy solutions provider. Email jerryfranklin@ensmartinc.com
