Stories & Features

BC Hydro's Alliance of Energy Professionals can simplify upgrades

Planning any construction or infrastructure upgrade project can be a daunting task. But when you're implementing new and unfamiliar systems or technologies on an incentive-driven project, it can get especially challenging. So who can you trust to do the work not just properly – but to a standard that satisfies all the building and incentive requirements? Well, if it's a project to increase your organization's energy efficiency, then the BC Hydro Alliance of Energy Professionals is here to help.

What is the Alliance?

We sat down with Tanya Perewernycky, BC Hydro's Marketing Alliances Program Delivery Specialist to find out more: "The BC Hydro Alliance of Energy Professionals is a network of energy professionals, including consulting engineers, installation contractors, suppliers, vendors who are able to assist customers in identifying areas of opportunity – particularly energy efficiency – and implement those changes into customer sites."

How can the Alliance help?

There are over 700 Alliance members across B.C. and all of them are experts in specific types of energy-saving systems and the latest BC Hydro programs. "We keep registered Alliance members updated on the latest offers, along with any changes to programs," says Tanya. "They're also fully trained on the tools required for the program and can help their customers identify all the relevant incentives for their project."

Alliance members can also help customers to build a business case for their project and complete their Business Energy Savings Incentives (BESI) and Self-serve Incentive Program (SIP) application: "They're not necessarily filling out all of the paperwork but they'll sort out the technical paperwork that most customers could get stuck on," says Tanya. "They'll put together a proposal and that'll usually include a return on investment calculation. So at a high level, they might tell you: 'This is a viable project and you can expect pay back in less than 2.5 years. We recommend moving forward.'"

But apart from understanding how to initiate your project, the other benefit of working with an Alliance member is that they're very familiar with actually fitting or integrating the latest systems – so your project can be as time-efficient as it is energy-efficient.

It's always worth confirming your eligibility with BC Hydro before engaging an Alliance member, but after that, while you'll receive communications from BC Hydro, you'll be working direct with the Alliance member for the duration of the project.

How to find out if your organization is eligible

If your organization is registered on the Conservation and Energy Management (CEM) Hub, you can find out your program eligibility when you log in. If you're not yet registered for the CEM Hub, you can find out more here, or you can go straight to our Business Program Eligibility Tool, which will also identify if your site is industrial and which programs you're eligible for. 

How to find and contact Alliance members

If you already have a good idea of the kind of project you'd like to start, then you can go straight to the Alliance referral page.

"We'll quickly understand the nature of the project and what incentives it's eligible for and then we'll determine where we need to start – with a consulting engineer or an installation contractor," says Tanya. "Then we'll connect the customer with a couple of Alliance members so then they can get quotes and decide how they want to proceed. If they don't have a preferred contractor that they're working with already, then we can assist them with that, too. Conversely, if the customer has their own preferred contractor, that's fine. We don't want to infringe on that relationship."

Either way, it's always worth confirming your eligibility with BC Hydro before engaging an Alliance member, but after that (while you'll receive communications from BC Hydro) you'll be working directly with the Alliance member for the duration of the project.

So if you've been thinking about an energy-saving project but didn't know where to start, hopefully you feel much more confident about making it a reality. We're looking forward to hearing from you!