Getting Municipal Buildings to Net Zero Emissions
- CAP undertook a review of Ontario municipal 2019 Corporate Energy Plans to assess the Corporate Energy Plan's alignment with municipal climate commitments. The review identified a significant gap between the 5-year energy plan commitments and the climate commitments made by municipalities.
- Thus far there has been significant efforts underway related to building automation, energy tracking, LED lighting adoption, and recommissioning.
- Efforts focused on energy efficiency has thus far focused on like for like replacement with some efficiency improvements but has thus far lacked substantial building envelope and fuel switching progress.
- Future directions for where municipalities are going include a much bigger emphasis on building envelope measures, fuel switching from fossil fuel to electricity, renewable energy, and energy storage.
- District Energy Systems: Municipalities, ex. Whitby and Mississauga, are exploring district energy systems, starting with municipal buildings as anchor tenants.
- Traditional 8 year pay back structures will not be able to achieve cost effective decarbonization. There is a need to move from short term payback calculations towards life cycle assessment calculations.
- Focus should be on emissions, not just energy, to meet greenhouse gas reduction targets.
- It is critical to align the municipal building decarbonization roadmap with asset management schedules. The state of good repair is one cost and the decarbonization is another cost. The two need to be considered together to advance the most cost effective decarbonization business case.
- Incremental improvements (e.g., replacing old fossil fuel systems with a slightly more efficient fossil fuel systems) can hinder long-term progress and lead to higher costs over the longer term and stranded assets of having to retire equipment prior to end of life.
- Municipalities are advancing net zero emission corporate green standards for their new builds and developing cost effective decarbonization plans and costing studies for existing buildings.
- Life cycle costing and incorporating carbon pricing (present and escalating as well as shadow carbon price ex. $ 300/tonne of GHG is used by federal government) into business cases are leading practices
- There is the issue that decarbonization road maps have been found to be cost effective over the lifetime of the asset, however it requires a significant up front capital investment to achieve those lifecycle savings. Some municipalities are using capital reserves and revolving funds to address upfront capital costs.
- There are offerings in markets such as SOFIAC which provide access to Canada Infrastructure bank funds and streamlined support based on the level of support the municipality needs.
- There has been advancement of net zero municipal buildings. For example:
- Net zero emissions Barrie transit station - new build
- Net zero emissions retrofit of 5 Markham fire halls; net zero new build fire station in London-Middlesex
- Net zero emissions City of Toronto day care centre, community centre and paramedic station (new builds)
- Whitby net zero emissions Community Centre and Net Zero Costing Study. Whitby's net-zero transition study showed a positive rate of return, emphasizing the importance of upfront investment in capital expenditures. Though long-term savings show a positive rate of return: $1.66 for every $1 invested.
- A community of practice for municipal energy managers exists to share knowledge and experiences. If your municipal energy manager is interested in joining this network contact Gaby at gkalapos@cleanairpartnership.org
- Net Zero Definition: can look at it from a focus on removing fossil fuels from buildings (scope 1). The next level of ambition is to ensure a clean electricity system or to install or purchase renewables and/or offsets to address electricity system emissions (scope 2).
Electrification and Investment:
- The importance of municipalities passing resolutions supporting electrification and ensuring continued decarbonization of the electrical system. The energy system is still very much geared towards providing/using fossil fuel for building heating. In addition, there is a present provincial approach to ramp up fossil fuel electricity generation not only to meet peak electricity needs but also to meet base load electricity needs.
- Active participation in integrated resource planning processes can influence provincial policies. Municipalities often lack the staff who can engage in these consultations. The Clean Air Council staff level network helps to bring municipal input together.
- At present, utilities are not incorporating electrification and decarbonization into their Investment Plans that get filed with the Ontario Energy Board.
- Toronto Hydro and Burlington Hydro are the only two utilities that we know about having done the work of identifying the readiness of their distribution system to accommodate GHG reduction targets and their required electrification. This is a topic that will be brought to a future OCC meeting.
- At present, electricity allocation isn't the main barrier (we are still addressing the upfront capital cost barrier - but it will become a barrier if our utilities aren't planning for that decarbonization in their investment plans.
- There is a lack of DSM and IESO programs supporting electrification in municipal buildings. There are efficiency programs but not fuel switching programs.
- Municipal input will be compiled and submitted to the upcoming DSM framework consultations by IESO in fall 2024.
- The national model code aims for electrification of building heating by 2030, but Ontario must adopt it.
- BC's Step Code provides a model for including emissions metrics in building codes.
- It is important to share stories and data to build support for net-zero initiatives across all sectors (with of course municipalities being one of those sectors)
- There have been neighbourhood heat pump parties to help introduce heat pumps to neighbours and address people's fears related to heating with electricity (largely because they are thinking baseboard heating and not heat pump heating).
Electricity Supply Concerns:
- Some residents worry about the availability of electricity for heat pumps and electric cars.
- While planning for future electrification at the utility level is critical, current electricity supply is not a barrier to electrification (except in very select grid constrained areas - which should be part of the utilities investment plan they file with the OEB since they know it is a grid constrained area that needs investment). However, if there are electricity upgrades that need to take place to enable that building's heating electrification then that may be an issue since those infrastructure costs will be allocated to the customer triggering that infrastructure investment.
- Switching to more efficient systems like air source heat pumps can create electricity savings, because it increases the efficiency of air conditioning. Thereby reducing cooling loads demanded during peak times.
- Ontario is a summer peaking electricity system. Therefore, winter electricity increases for building heating don't add to peak summer electricity needs. Especially if that building was already using an air conditioning system.
- It is anticipated that Ontario will have double peaks (one in the winter and one in the summer) at some future date but at present Ontario is a summer electricity peak.