Markham Ontario: The Hon. George Smitherman, Ontario’s Deputy Premier and Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, visited the local district heating plant in Markham on April 20 where the topic of the day was energy efficiency at the local level.
Asked about the initiatives in Markham, Minister Smitherman said, “What’s impressive is that the Town of Markham had a vision. It took a lot of courage to decide to make the investments even before all of the users were here. At the heart of it, this notion of combined heat and power is really about efficiency. It’s about how you can have one plant that can produce enough electricity and heat for 5000 homes and 3 million square feet of office space without each of those buildings having their own boilers or their own furnaces. Two things really: The leadership on the part of the Town of Markham and the model of combined heat and power is intensely efficient. It’s very, very exciting for that reason.”
In a presentation by Bruce Ander, Chair of the Canadian District Energy Association and President of Markham District Energy Inc., current concerns of the distributed generation industry were put before the Minister. Ander laid out the following specific recommendations:
1. Legislate community energy planning so there are “no missed opportunities.”
2. Finance the installation of thermal energy infrastructure whenever possible in new high density urban developments.
3. Continue to aggressively advance the development of combined heat & power projects in parallel with the new renewable energy supply.
4. Immediately instruct the Ontario Power Authority to release the Clean Energy Standard Offer Program.
In his presentation, Mr. Ander noted how other countries have combined renewable energy programs with programs encouraging combined heat and power. Denmark, for example, uses a Feed-In Tariff much like Ontario’s, but complements it with a relatively strong incentive for the development and operation of combined heat and power (CHP). In many cases such initiatives are greatly facilitated by coordinated local energy planning, a practice that can help to increase overall energy efficiency but which is unfortunately relatively rare in Canada.
The Town of Markham’s energy programs are in the forefront among Canadian municipalities, having initiated major conservation initiatives and spun off a district energy corporation. (See “Markham enters the competitive energy market,” in IPPSO FACTO, February 2008.)