|
9. Status report on City Environmental Initiatives and proposed STRATEGIC
PARTNERSHIP WITH ENERGY OTTAWA
|
That Council:
1.
Receive the status
report on City of Ottawa Environmental Initiaves in Appendices A-1 and A-2 for information;
2.
Approve Energy
Ottawa as the City’s preferred partner in the pursuit of initiatives to reduce
energy costs and overall energy consumption through energy efficiency,
conservation and demand management;
3.
Authorize the City
Manager to negotiate a partnership agreement with Energy Ottawa to assist the
City in maximizing revenue from demand response and similar opportunities;
4.
Create an Energy
Efficiency Reserve Fund with revenues realized from the partnership with Energy
Ottawa; and
5.
Approve the use of
revenues from the Energy Efficiency Reserve Fund for programs in the areas of
energy efficiency and air quality as described in this report.
Que le Conseil :
1. prend connaissance de l'état d'avancement des initiatives de la Ville d'Ottawa en matière d'environnement, joint aux annexes A-1 et A-2 du présent document;
2. approuve la désignation d'Énergie Ottawa comme partenaire privilégié de la Ville dans la réalisation d'initiatives visant à réduire le coût de l'énergie et sa consommation globale, au moyen de l'efficacité énergétique, de la conservation et de la gestion de la demande;
3. autorise le directeur municipal à négocier une entente de partenariat avec Énergie Ottawa afin d'aider la Ville à optimiser les recettes découlant de la réaction de la demande et de possibilités semblables;
4. constitue un fonds de réserve pour l'efficacité énergétique à même les recettes découlant du partenariat formé avec Énergie Ottawa;
5. approuve
l'affectation des recettes provenant du Fonds de réserve pour l'efficacité
énergétique à la réalisation de programmes dans les domaines de l'efficacité
énergétique et de la qualité de l'air, comme le précise le présent rapport.
DOCUMENTATION
1.
Planning
and Growth Management, Deputy City Manager’s report dated
30 May 2006
(ACS2006-PGM-POL-0047).
2. Extract of Draft Minute, 06 June
2006.
Report to/Rapport au :
Corporate Services and
Economic Development Committee
Comité des services organisationnels et du développement économique
and Council / et au Conseil
Submitted by/Soumis par : John Moser, A/Deputy City Manager / Directeur
municipal adjoint, Planning and Growth Management / Urbanisme et Gestion de la
croissance
Contact Person/Personne ressource : Dennis Jacobs, Director, Planning,
Environment & Infrastructure Policy/ Directeur, Direction de la politique
d’urbanisme, d’environnement et d’infrastructure / Service de l’urbanisme et de
la gestion de la croissance
(613) 580-2424 x25521, dennis.jacobs@ottawa.ca
REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS
That Corporate Services and Economic
Development Committee recommend Council:
1. Receive the status report on City of
Ottawa Environmental Initiaves in Appendices
A-1 and A-2 for information;
2. Approve Energy Ottawa as the City’s preferred partner in the pursuit of initiatives to reduce energy costs and overall energy consumption through energy efficiency, conservation and demand management;
3. Authorize the City Manager to negotiate a partnership agreement with Energy Ottawa to assist the City in maximizing revenue from demand response and similar opportunities;
4. Create an Energy Efficiency Reserve Fund with revenues realized from the partnership with Energy Ottawa; and
5. Approve the use of revenues from the Energy Efficiency Reserve Fund for programs in the areas of energy efficiency and air quality as described in this report.
RECOMMANDATIONS DU
RAPPORT
Que le Comité des services organisationnels et
du développement économique recommande au Conseil :
1. de prendre connaissance de l'état d'avancement des initiatives de la Ville d'Ottawa en matière d'environnement, joint aux annexes A-1 et A-2 du présent document;
2. d'approuver la désignation d'Énergie
Ottawa comme partenaire privilégié de la Ville dans la réalisation
d'initiatives visant à réduire le coût de l'énergie et sa consommation globale,
au moyen de l'efficacité énergétique, de la conservation et de la gestion de la
demande;
3. d'autoriser le directeur municipal à
négocier une entente de partenariat avec Énergie Ottawa afin d'aider la Ville à
optimiser les recettes découlant de la réaction de la demande et de
possibilités semblables;
4. de constituer un fonds de réserve pour
l'efficacité énergétique à même les recettes découlant du partenariat formé
avec Énergie Ottawa;
5. d'approuver l'affectation des recettes
provenant du Fonds de réserve pour l'efficacité énergétique à la réalisation de
programmes dans les domaines de l'efficacité énergétique et de la qualité de
l'air, comme le précise le présent rapport.
BACKGROUND AND EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The City of Ottawa has important responsibilities in the area of environmental stewardship. Many of the City's core services -- public transit, drinking water, waste collection and treatment, wastewater services, cycling and pedestrian infrastructure, environmental health, park and greenspace development, and recycling, for example -- are directly involved with environmental protection as part of their day-to-day operations.
The City is also one of Ottawa's largest consumers of energy resources as it runs community centres, ice rinks, libraries, childcare centres, water treatment, buses, ambulances, fire trucks, and snow plows. In addition to its stewardship programs, the City believes that it has important environmental leadership obligations as a corporate citizen.
The protection of the environment has become more and more important as cities develop and as effects of climate change are felt across the globe. Many governments and business alike are working hard to try to find ways to contribute to environmental initiatives and to reduce greenhouse gases.
The City has been a municipal leader in seeking out innovative partnerships on environmental initiatives. The partnership with Energy Ottawa to use the energy produced from landfill gases at Trail Road and the partnership with Plasco to produce energy from waste as a by-product of plasma gasification are just two examples.
This report lists some of the City's recent and upcoming environmental initiatives for Council's information, and identifies a new environmental partnership opportunity with Energy Ottawa that will generate savings from reduced energy consumption and allow those savings to be used for other energy saving initiatives at the City.
CONTEXTE ET RÉSUMÉ
La Ville d’Ottawa assume
d’importantes responsabilités dans le domaine de l’intendance environnementale.
Plusieurs des services de base de la Ville (transport en commun, eau potable,
collecte et traitement des déchets, réseau d’égouts, infrastructure cyclable et
piétonnière, hygiène du milieu, aménagement des parcs et espaces verts et
recyclage, par exemple), ont un lien direct et permanent avec la protection de
l’environnement.
En outre, la Ville est l’un des
principaux consommateurs de ressources énergétiques, étant donné qu’elle
exploite des centres communautaires, des patinoires, des bibliothèques, des
garderies, des autobus, des ambulances, des camions d’incendie et des
déneigeuses. En plus de réaliser des programmes d’intendance environnementale,
la Ville estime avoir à jouer un rôle de chef de file en environnement en tant
qu’entreprise citoyenne.
La protection de l’environnement a
pris de plus en plus d’importance à mesure que les villes se développent et que
les effets des changements climatiques se font sentir à l’échelle de la
planète. Un grand nombre de gouvernements et d’entreprises s’efforcent de
trouver des façons de contribuer à des initiatives à caractère environnemental
et de réduire les émissions de gaz à effet de serre.
La Ville fait figure de leader dans
le monde municipal pour la recherche de partenariats innovateurs en vue de la
réalisation d’initiatives environnementales. Le partenariat constitué avec
Énergie Ottawa pour l’utilisation de l’énergie provenant des gaz
d’enfouissement de la décharge du chemin Trail et le partenariat formé avec
Plasco pour la production d’énergie à partir des déchets comme sous-produit de
la gazéification par plasma n’en sont que deux exemples.
Le présent rapport énumère, à
l’intention du Conseil, certaines des initiatives récentes et à venir de la
Ville en matière d’environnement et décrit la possibilité de former avec
Énergie Ottawa un partenariat environnemental qui suscitera des économies grâce
à la diminution de la consommation d’énergie et permettra d’affecter les sommes
ainsi épargnées à la réalisation d’autres mesures d’économie d’énergie à la
Ville.
DISCUSSION
PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT: STATUS REPORT ON THE CITY'S ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVES
The City of Ottawa's Official Plan places a high priority on protecting and preserving the environment. The City's Environmental Strategy, adopted in 2003 following significant public consultation, identifies the major goals the City of Ottawa will meet in the areas of preserving greenspace, strengthening ecosystem planning and design, protecting surface and groundwater, improving air quality, and protecting and conserving our resources.
Building on the Environmental Strategy, City Council also adopted its Environmental Agenda in late 2005 as part of the City's first Corporate Plan. The Environmental agenda identifies some specific ways the City is planning to achieve its environmental goals over the next three years, like:
Many citizens are aware of the major environmental projects the City undertakes, like the Light Rail project, the organics pilot project and the Plasco plasma gasification demonstration project, but the City has many other environmental initiatives underway as well. A status report of the major policies, projects and programs that the City is undertaking to meet its environmental goals is attached in Appendix A.
Highlights include:
Also included in Appendix A is a listing of Hydro Ottawa initiatives. Hydro Ottawa, as a provider of energy, is taking an active role in energy saving initiatives both as an environmental leader and to reduce demand as part of a province-wide effort to reduce the growing pressure on aging electricity infrastructure.
Reducing Energy Use at the City of Ottawa
In 2005, the City spent approximately $23 million on electricity to run its over 740 facilities, representing a total consumption of 295,400 megawatt-hours (MWh). As was stated earlier, this makes the City one of the largest consumers of electricity in Ottawa.
Reducing the City's energy consumption is one of the most important ways in which the City can reduce its environmental impact, and a number of initiatives have been undertaken in recent years that help accomplish that goal.
Real Property Asset Management (RPAM) has carried out an Energy Retrofit program since 2002. By investing $4.2 million, this program has reduced energy requirements by 10,000 MWh, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 4,300 tonnes, and realized savings of $750,000 annually. As well, RPAM ensures that City Council's Green Building policy, which requires all new City buildings or major additions to meet at least LEED certified standard and LEED Silver if possible, is put into practice. The new paramedic headquarters, opened last December, is the first City building to be LEED certified and its energy use is 30% less than it would have been had it been built to the National Model Energy Code.
In Public Works and Services (PWS), the Fleet Street pumping station, built in 1874, was refurbished and is still in use today, pumping water from the Lemieux water treatment plant to the downtown at a saving of 15,800 MWh and $1,200,000 annually. A cogeneration facility was built at the Robert O. Pickard Environmental Centre, which uses digester gas to produce 2.4 MW of electricity and 2.9 MW of heat. Both the electrical power and heat are used to operate the Pickard Centre. The result is a savings of $650,000 and approximately 250,000 tonnes reduction in greenhouse gases each year.
City Partnerships to Reduce Energy Use
In addition to the activities the City has undertaken on its own, it has also engaged in several partnerships to achieve further energy reductions.
Energy Ottawa has been a partner on several major projects over the past five years, specifically:
The City has also reached an agreement with Plasco Energy Inc. for the construction of a demonstration plasma gasification plant at Trail Road that will convert solid waste directly to a synthetic gas used to generate electricity. This project will produce 5 MWh of electricity from waste.
Proposal for an Enhanced Partnership Arrangement with Energy Ottawa
The City of Ottawa has a Building Engineering and Energy Management Section within RPAM that manages energy consumption and the programs that reduce energy consumption in City facilities. In addition to those programs that are part of the normal City budget, they have acquired funds available from sources, including Hydro Ottawa, Enbridge, FCM Green Municipal Funds and Natural Resources Canada for specific energy performance improvements. As RPAM complements its resident internal expertise by contracting design, development and implementation to the private sector, it is always looking for those contractors that will provide the best value for the City.
Energy Ottawa is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hydro Ottawa Holding Inc., whose sole shareholder is the City of Ottawa. Energy Ottawa is a diversified and innovative energy company that offers an extensive range of energy management and procurement services to a wide variety of customers. It has expertise in energy markets and management of generation facilities. As well, Energy Ottawa provides services like conducting facility energy audits, designing and implementing energy efficiency improvements in facilities, construction and project management, and monitoring and verifying energy savings.
Energy Ottawa is also a green energy provider with two "run of the river" generators at Chaudiere Falls, and it is looking to expand its generating capacity. The existing generators were upgraded in 2001 and 2005 to increase production capacity from 69,000 MWh to 120 MWh per year.
Energy Ottawa has already undertaken the significant partnerships with the City of Ottawa indicated in the previous section, and the City (through RPAM) and Energy Ottawa have identified additional ways in which both parties could benefit from expanding and formalizing their relationship.
This
proposed relationship would be best categorized as a “preferred partnership”.
It will be similar to the arrangement the City has with Telecom Ottawa, and
will be focused on implementing those initiatives proposed by the City and/or
Energy Ottawa on a contracted service for competitive fee basis. This proposed
structure would not prevent the City from taking advantage of other innovative
ideas by third party providers, private or public.
The
intent of the “preferred partnership” would be to explore innovative ways for
the City to reduce consumption, reduce GHG emissions and create financial
benefit to the city by reducing costs, avoiding costs and generating revenue;
and allow Energy Ottawa to enhance their business success through service for
fee contracting.
Energy
Ottawa would, under this partnership, complement the City’s energy management
team by working on the following (but not limited to) list of priority
activities:
It is anticipated that
this preferred partnership will have both direct and indirect financial benefits for the City. Under demand response
programs, payment is made for removing a load from the grid (load shedding) or
shifting load to off-peak hours when demand is low or feeding power to the grid
in times of high demand. In addition to
these payments, there is a savings related to the reduced consumption, meaning
that the partnership has the potential to provide the City with a new revenue
stream in addition to yielding electricity bill savings. Expanding the energy
retrofit program would also yield electricity bill savings.
Realizing
the value of the electricity exported to the grid from the natural gas-fired
generator at the Britannia Water Purification Plant could potentially be worth
approximately $50 – $70,000 annually. Energy Ottawa has a generator's license,
which the Ontario Energy Board requires before payment can be received for
power, and the City cannot generate electricity except through a business
corporation. Energy Ottawa's generator's license could be amended to include
the Britannia generator, allowing Hydro Ottawa to pay Energy Ottawa for the
excess that is being exported to the grid when that generator is operating.
Energy Ottawa would, in turn, flow that payment back to the City
Given
that it is likely that energy costs will continue to increase faster than the
general rate of inflation, it would be fiscally prudent as well as
environmentally responsible to reinvest the revenues and savings realized
through the partnership with Energy Ottawa in further energy efficiency or load
displacement measures. This could be
accomplished by placing these revenues and savings into a new Energy Efficiency
Reserve Fund. Monies from the fund
could be used to implement additional energy conservation and load displacement
measures and, working in partnership with Hydro Ottawa, to create a
conservation culture within the City and the community at large. Staff at the City and Hydro Ottawa are
working to ensure that their energy conservation programs complement rather
than duplicate each other.
Since
load displacement revenue opportunities will vary with the weather’s impact on
heating and cooling loads as well as generating capacity, revenues from this
source will vary annually. Placement of
revenues from the new partnership in a reserve fund will permit allocation of
the revenues received each year during the next year’s budget process.
Use
of revenues in the Reserve Fund will be decided on an annual basis during the
budget review process within the areas of energy conservation and air
quality.
Fees
for services initiated under this partnership will be part of the negotiations
between Energy Ottawa and the City, its sole shareholder.
ENVIRONMENTAL
IMPLICATIONS
This
partnership will support a number of the environmental goals and commitments
contained in the City’s 20/20 Smart Growth plan. Most notably it will contribute significantly to reducing the
City’s greenhouse gas emissions, managing its resources efficiently and to
making Ottawa a leader as a sustainable community
Consulations occurred among City staff, Energy Ottawa and Hydro Ottawa officials, and the Environmental Advisory Committee.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
The Transition Demand Response Program and similar future programs represent a new revenue opportunity for the City of Ottawa. Energy Ottawa is qualified to help the City maximize the revenues from participation in such programs. Creation of the new reserve fund will enable Council to direct these revenues appropriately.
Improving
the energy efficiency of municipally-owned facilities has the potential to
reduce future energy costs by an estimated 10-30%. With the appropriate capital investment, a conservative savings
of 10% across the portfolio could result in $2.3 million savings annually on
electricity alone. RPAM will continue to request $1 million annually in capital
to sustain the City's base level energy retrofit programme. Additional savings
realized from the Energy Ottawa partnership would be added to the new reserve
fund.
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION
Appendix A-1 City of Ottawa Environmental Initiatives 2006
DISPOSITION
Upon
approval by Council, the City Manager will negotiate a preferential agreement
with Energy Ottawa in consultation with the City Solicitor and Legal Services
will prepare a by-law to establish a new Energy Efficiency Reserve Fund.