Webinars and online resources available in your Alliance member portal are designed to update you on our programs while also answering frequently asked questions about processes and incentives.
150 attended our August webinar, and you can view it online
Tanya Perewernycky apologizes for the short notice given for a mid-summer Alliance webinar… then gushes about just how many Alliance members responded.
"I honestly thought there would be more BC Hydro people than consultants," says the Alliance program manager. "It was surprisingly well attended considering I sent the invite on Friday for a webinar on a Wednesday after a long weekend at the start of August."
It's abundantly clear that Alliance members have a tremendous appetite for training and updates. So the Alliance team will do what it can to get topical webinars and training materials to members.
If you missed the August 5 webinar that focused on the express study offer, you can log into your member portal and view the webinar in its entirety, or fast-forward to the section(s) that most interest you. You can also scroll down to the final section of this article for the basics of the offer.
There may be follow-up sessions on the express study offer for specific audiences and technologies. Perewernycky and her team are looking at sessions such as one catering to solar product vendors.
Webinars generally include a question-and-answer component, although the online-chat format can limit how many questions are addressed during a session. Perewernycky encourages members to follow up rather than leave uncertainties unresolved.
"Any time members have additional questions from what they've seen in the webinars, they should contact the Alliance email," she says. "That's pretty important."
Are you a newer member not yet registered with the member portal? Email us at alliance@bchydro.com or call: 604 522 4713 in the Lower Mainland, 1 866 522 4713 elsewhere.
Take advantage of our online resources
Alliance training includes live webinars, recorded presentations, online videos, FAQs, program guides, and occasional in-person events. Sessions are generally timed to coincide with the introduction or revision of a BC Hydro offer and tailored to the members most likely to deliver those projects.
This fall, the Alliance is looking forward to hosting a webinar reviewing the basics of the Business Energy Saving Incentives (BESI) program. Watch your emails for an invitation.
August workshop overview: express study offer
The express study offer is targeted for small and mid-sized, less complex facilities: commercial customers using between 100,000 kWh and 1 GWh of annual energy consumption, and industrial customers consuming more than 500,000 kWh and less than 4 GWh per year.
The express study is designed to give qualifying customers direct access to incentive applications. An express study tool — an Excel-based workbook — has been set up so that consultants can enter key variables into the workbook to identify energy and/or capacity savings.
The study is broken out into five key areas of opportunity: lighting (which still requires the completion of the lighting calculator), mechanical, solar PV, battery energy storage systems (BESS), and a demand response opportunity assessment.
Note that commercial customers are only eligible if they have both a total company wide energy consumption of more than 2 GWh a year and an individual site that consumes more than 100,000 kWh a year. For industrial customers, the site must consume a minimum of 500,000 kWh a year.
Other key components:
- Funding for the Express Study is up to $2,500 for each energy opportunity tab completed with a maximum of $12,500 per eligible facility. Not every facility is expected to explore every energy opportunity.
- The demand response opportunity assessment may be submitted independently and funding can be up to $3,500.
- For lighting or mechanical systems, the building must be at least five years old.
- For solar PV, the minimum array must be 100 kW AC, with a minimum of 50% of the customer generation to be used as load displacement. A minimum available roof space is 6,000 square feet.
- For battery energy storage systems, we're looking specifically at customer sites that have consumption during the winter months of November 1 to March 31, specifically between the 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. timeframe.
- For demand response, we're also looking for consumption between the 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. window. The customer must target a minimum of three behaviours or a minimum 25% reduction of their peak usage.