The Association of Major Power Consumers in Ontario, with the support of the Conservation Fund of the Ontario Power Authority (OPA), has engaged business leaders and energy conservation experts across Ontario to:

·          Raise awareness about ambitious conservation targets set by the Ontario government and business opportunities for conservation

·          Recruit business leaders, energy managers and experts to assist AMPCO in identifying conservation opportunities and barriers, to evaluate the effectiveness of conservation programs, generate ideas and recommend ways to achieve Ontario’s conservation targets

·          Design and populate a database of conservation opportunities and business prospects for conservation programs

·          Learn how to communicate effectively with business consumers

AMPCO’s Report, Conservation through Dialogue and Design, is a product of this effort.

Summary of Findings

·          Business consumers are already highly aware of energy efficiency issues

·          Economic barriers impede consumers' pursuit of conservation efforts

·          Business consumers need to see immediate value from conservation investments in order to justify making them

·          Direct economic incentives are needed to spur significant action and reductions in use

·          Customers voice a strong demand for trustworthy, streamlined, practical information on best practices, programs, resources and networking

·          Initially, programs with many small and short term energy savings successes will be most effective

·          Given the diversity of customers' infrastructures and resources, they are better positioned to come up with effective initiatives for their own use than are third-parties, such as utilities

Principles to Guide Effective Conservation Programs

·          The focus must be on customers and customer needs, not on institutions, utilities, technologies, programs or projects

·          Business consumers themselves must be engaged – not as targets for utility programs – but in developing plans, programs and processes themselves to meet their own needs

·          Information and education must support decision-making at every level in an organization

·          Programs must be transparent and administratively simple

·          Incentives must promote cost-effective conservation outcomes

·          Programs must promote efficient implementation to reduce management and administrative burdens and to minimize overhead costs

Conclusions

To achieve meaningful energy conservation targets, Ontario must move beyond high-level marketing initiatives; pursue long-term programs to accelerate improvement in industrial energy use; and engage broad business consumer groups and communities.

Business leaders appreciate the objectives, but require specific information that translates into nuts-and-bolts energy saving projects.  Their appetite for energy conservation is a reflection of the competitive environment in which they function.  They can identify significant opportunities to save energy, but not without long term planning, considerable investment, risk and the patience to weather low rates of return and long pay-back periods.  Conservation is a tough sell in business environments that demand low-cost, high-gain results on a quarterly or annual basis. 

If conservation is to out-compete the supply alternative, customers must be directly engaged and consumer action must be supported by good information and analysis.  Furthermore, straightforward programs must deliver sufficient incentives to overcome existing economic barriers. 

OPA could facilitate this by directly responding to what consumers want and need.  This would include incentives, information, and value for money auditing.

Programs should be easy to enter and easy to understand, and the initial focus should be on small, low-risk steps to build a track record of success. 

Contribution to the Report

This report was made possible with experience, expertise and funding provided by the Conservation Fund of the Ontario Power Authority.

Over a four week period in October and November of 2006, AMPCO organized and participated in 12 focused consultation sessions, outreach meetings, and workshops.  The project team corresponded with all AMPCO members and engaged a broad range of small, medium and large industrial electricity consumers. Through regional workshops – in Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, Ottawa, Orillia, Toronto, Waterloo, Hamilton, London, Sarnia and Windsor – AMPCO met with as many as 200 local business managers, conservation and demand management program developers, product suppliers and delivery agents.

In addition, AMPCO conducted an extensive review of the literature and analyzed conservation program experience in Ontario and other jurisdictions in Canada, the United States, Europe and elsewhere.

About AMPCO

AMPCO is a not-for-profit consumer interest advocacy organization that serves the interests of Ontario’s major industries: forestry, chemical, mining and minerals, steel, petroleum products, cement, automotive and manufacturing industries and business consumers in general.

AMPCO’s members include 50 of the largest power consumers in Ontario and represent a total wholesale expenditure on electricity commodity of more than $1 billion per year.  Collectively, AMPCO members comprise 14 percent of Ontario’s electricity demand; use 50 percent of its industrial demand; and employ approximately 50,000 people throughout the province.

For More information

Copies of Conservation through Dialogue and Design are available here.