A penny saved is a penny earned, the old adage says. Likewise, the cheapest energy is the energy you don’t use.
That’s the philosophy behind the demand response programs introduced by the Ontario Power Authority. Demand response works by having major power users reduce their electricity consumption at certain times when called upon by the OPA. That allows the OPA to avoid straining
Ontario’s grid during peak demand times, like the hot hazy days of summer when everyone cranks up their air conditioners.
Toyota Boshoku Elmira recently signed on to take part in OPA’s DR3 program, which sees participants cut their energy use over a four-hour period when asked. Jason Psutka, the company’s environmental officer, explained that Toyota Boshoku recently installed a building management system, which made it possible to be part of a demand reduction program.
“We can turn off lots of things with the flick of a switch, which made it easy to comply with such a request,” he said.
Toyota Boshoku has agreed to adjust heating and cooling set points in the office and plant. That could mean pre-cooling the plant earlier in the day, then turning off the air conditioning during the four-hour time frame.
“We think we can offer other things here, including turning off non-essential items,” Psutka said. “We also have electric tow motors here, so perhaps we could only charge batteries during non-heavy times. We think we could add those things in the future.”
Toyota Boshoku signed on with an aggregator, EnerNOC, rather than the OPA itself. There are a handful of aggregators in the province who sign contracts with companies, pool the contracts together, and offer them to the OPA as a block to call upon when needed.
John Carter, business development manager for EnerNOC, said the program is open to any entity – manufacturer, store or shopping mall, or institution like a hospital – that can reduce its energy load by approximately 100 to 200 kilowatts.
Companies are compensated for signing the agreement, even if there are no peak demand events that require them to reduce their usage. If they are called on to reduce their load, the OPA, through the aggregator, pays for the electricity they didn’t use.
Psutka said the deal is a win-win for the province and the participants.
“It’s cheaper to pay for your non-use than it is to pay for peaking natural gas plants or building another nuclear reactor.”
A civil engineer by trade, Psutka has always been interested in energy use and efficiency, and how the company can save money by adopting new technologies. The first year that the production plant was put on a building management system, the company saved $30,000 on natural gas for heating, even after factoring in outside temperatures.
The plant recently started monitoring and controlling the pressure in the building. Plants typically have exhaust systems leading outside, with the result that pressure in the plant is slightly negative. When doors to the outside are opened, the hot or cold air rushes in. In a plant like Toyota-Boshoku Elmira, which has temperature-sensitive processes, that caused high scrap rates. Now the plant is pressurized, so there is no air flow in or out when a door is opened.
With an ever-brighter spotlight on climate change and carbon emissions, there has been a greater focus on reducing the company’s carbon footprint and a growing number of incentive programs to help make it possible.
That makes Psutka’s job all the more interesting. He’s currently evaluating different types of energy-efficient lighting for the plant, and would like to see the natural gas water heater in the front office replaced with solar water heating.
“The reason to be for any company is to make money, but if we can continue to make money as well as reduce, reuse, recycle, that’s fantastic and everybody wins.”
