HALDIMAND—Haldimand County has committed to a 10% overall reduction in energy intensity consumption and carbon emissions by 2028.
A new Energy Conservation and Demand Management Plan was unanimously approved by Council on Tuesday, December 10, 2024. Director of Strategic Energy Solutions Noel Cheeseman from Jupiter Energy Advisors Inc. gave a presentation to Council on the new plan, required for updating every five years by the provincial government.
Cheeseman said Haldimand has been committed to finding new ways of improving energy efficiency since the creation of its Facilities, Capital Asset and Management (FCAM) division in 2018.
“There was a commitment that was formed to not only meet these regulations but also to use them as an opportunity to build an efficient management mindset within the county,” he said.
Cheeseman added that the new plan has been in the works since 2022 and involved collaboration with the FCAM and several other County departments.
“There are specific goals that have been established for energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions targets, as well as overall objectives,” he said, noting the overall intention is to create an energy conservation approach to operations on a daily basis, guided by the principle that “energy management starts within the County and will go beyond.”
On why 10% targets were chosen, he explained that “an exercise that was done to look at all the facilities which used energy intensity and (we) made a calculation that if the poorest performing facilities performed as well as the top quarter of the facilities performance, what kind of savings could result from that?”
The number they found was an eye-opening 38%. Cheeseman continued, “It gives you a sense of what the opportunity is for savings…. To look at 10% is quite reasonable and we are all confident that this is a figure that can be achieved.”
“It is well known that if you simply focus on improving the operations of your facilities, in other words when the equipment turns on or turns off, you can add significant savings there,” he noted. “The advantage of that is action that can be taken immediately and reap immediate savings with little or no additional cost.”
Other objectives include creating an energy team and improving facility energy monitoring and documentation, which Cheeseman called “critical to understand what your data is showing you.”
The plan also calls for reviewing new build green energy certification and design standards, implementing energy efficient infrastructure that can lead to lower operating costs through the life of the new facility.
Mayor Shelley Ann Bentley asked if some of those principles were already being considered on current County projects in development.
“We’ve been working on this for years,” replied Engineering and Capital Works Manager Tyson Haedrich. “The Hagersville Active Living Centre did explore a lot of those. They have chosen a high efficiency HVAC unit, the insulation, all those things. It’s not to any lead certification, but we did make an emphasis of looking at energy efficiency for that project as well as the new Caledonia fire station as well.”
The plan also calls for Haldimand to look at considering an electric vehicle pilot program.
“I know we’ve explored this on the County level and it seems cost prohibitive for the most part,” said Councillor Patrick O’Neill on this program. “I know we’ve been encouraged to speak with local businesses about kind of partnering with them to try and get one of these programs. Do you have an idea of what that program would look like? Is it based on County funding or working with local partners?”
“The idea of this plan is really to explore all that,” replied Cheeseman. “There isn’t anything specific right now…. Take these next few years and understand what is going on. There are a number of municipalities who are … ahead on these kinds of things. The prudent thing to do would be to look at them and what they’re doing.”
Lastly, the plan calls for improved communication and training between Haldimand’s various departments.
“This is not doing anything radical, it’s just trying to ensure that people are following good practices. Simple things like ensuring that you’re not running boilers and ventilation equipment on a Saturday or Sunday when it’s not needed. Easy wins here and it just means people pay more attention to that,” said Cheeseman.
Bentley concluded, “Energy conservation is everybody’s responsibility, including those sitting around this table.”
Council voted unanimously in support of adopting the new program.
