Thank you, Susanne.
Thanks for the opportunity...[Technical difficulty—Editor].
As was mentioned, Manitoba Hydro has a very comprehensive suite of energy efficiency programs, which is available, of course, to our residential customers, but also to our commercial and industrial customers. The suite of efficiency programs are branded as Power Smart, so I may refer to the term “Power Smart” in speaking to our efficiency programs.
We work a great deal with the private sector, but also with the public sector, with all levels of government—municipal, provincial, and a lot of work with the federal government as well. I'll highlight some of the results of our work in Manitoba with federal buildings.
I will provide a little history. The Power Smart initiative is designed to assist our customers to use both electricity and natural gas in a more efficient manner. We supply both fuels throughout the province, and one of the mandates of our energy efficiency programs is to promote the adoption of a wide variety of products and also best practices and services. Our electricity programs have been in place for over 20 years. In 2006, natural gas programs were added, which was as a result of us, Manitoba Hydro, purchasing the local gas utility.
I'll quickly speak to some of the components of what is included in the Power Smart suite of programs. In addition to financial incentives, we also offer a service to our commercial customers, where we would be visiting their properties and conducting a walk-through to identify some opportunities to improve energy efficiency. Once that has been established, we can also provide technical support, through a group of professional engineers who we employ at Manitoba Hydro, to help our customers identify the options and analyze what may be the best choice for them. The incremental product cost of many energy efficient products can be a barrier to maximizing their adoption, so we do also offer financial incentives—to help offset the incremental costs and to make the opportunities as economic as possible for our customers.
Something that I don't have listed in the slides you may be following is that we also have a mandate to provide education in the market and to build capacity within the industry in areas where we don't believe it fully exists within the province.
Some of the benefits that we recognize exist and that our customers enjoy when they're taking advantage of our energy efficiency programs are as follows.
Naturally, one is lower energy costs.
Something our customers deem very important is reduced emissions, and that's because of natural gas and electricity savings.
An increase in property values is also something of great benefit to our customers.
Susanne talked about this one: improved occupant comfort through more consistent heating and cooling, and better lighting levels. That's something of great value as well.
Another benefit of energy efficiency projects, of course, is extended equipment life. More efficient equipment tends to not need to work as hard, therefore extending the life of the equipment. In addition to that, there are reduced maintenance costs, typically because systems last longer; they are more efficient and require less servicing.
I'd like to identify some of the common opportunities that we see with our commercial building stock in Manitoba. I'll start by speaking to some whole building strategies. We offer a program that promotes a number of key pillars for the construction of energy efficient buildings. Integrated design is a practice in which all vested groups and all trades are involved from the start, to ensure that the building is planned and constructed in the most efficient manner possible.
Building simulation and energy modelling are tools to ensure that the planned construction comes to fruition and those savings are realized. With respect to building commissioning, once the building is constructed we need to ensure that the systems are set and operating according to their design. The commissioning process ensures that ongoing energy management systems and practices are in place so that those savings persist into the future.
For buildings that have been constructed and may not be performing to the level available to them, we also offer a program that promotes the optimization of existing buildings. This program promotes both retro-commissioning and recommissioning. Recommissioning is for a building that has been constructed with systems set up to operate based on a number of assumptions, like off-business occupancy levels and patterns of behaviour in the occupants. Over time, these things can change. The building settings can be manually overridden because of occupant complaints, changes in patterns of behaviour, and hours of operation. Those system settings need to be revisited over time. We offer a program that works with our customers and encourages that process to be undertaken. Retro-commissioning addresses buildings that were constructed and never commissioned or not commissioned properly.
Another area of significant opportunity is heating and cooling. We have a number of programs that offer incentives for heating boilers. We promote both condensing and near-condensing technologies. These are natural gas boilers that utilize the exhaust heat as a means of pre-heating incoming air. Those technologies can provide significant savings. As for cooling, larger buildings typically are cooled with chillers. We offer support and incentives for customers who are implementing energy efficient chillers. The installation of CO2 sensors is another ventilation strategy. Many buildings are set to exchange the indoor air according to an assumed level of occupancy. The air is exchanged and outside air is brought in, which requires heating or cooling. This involves a lot of energy use. This technology allows buildings to avoid over-ventilating and introducing air from the outside that needs to be heated or cooled.
Geothermal is also a very energy efficient opportunity in Manitoba, and we offer support and incentives for the installation of geothermal ground source systems.
In Manitoba, with the climate we have, building envelope is a key area in making sure that buildings are operating efficiently. We promote both insulation and energy efficient windows. We provide incentives for insulation upgrades for various types of commercial roof structures as well as wall systems. We're trying to avoid the loss of conditioned air from the building space.
Another important program in Manitoba promotes energy efficient windows. With our climate, advanced window systems and curtain wall systems are important for commercial buildings. Through our program, we promote windows that have a U-value of 1.7 or less. Typically, that window would be a triple-paned window that would be treated with a low-e coating. It would be constructed with argon gas between the panes. It's a very efficient window that helps promote the airtightness of the building envelope.
Lighting is another area in which we have a very advanced program to address. B.C. had talked about converting most of their T12 linear fluorescent lights to T8s. This is something that has been done extensively in the Manitoba marketplace, with incentives in place for a number of years. We've been promoting T5 linear fluorescent lighting systems as well, typically used in settings where there might be higher ceilings and open spaces. Compact fluorescents are also—