Conservation, including energy efficiency, is one of the best ways to manage energy costs, creating lasting operational savings and improving energy productivity. The Ontario Power Authority’s Industrial Accelerator is a new program designed to assist transmission-connected industrial electricity users to fast-track capital investment in major energy-efficiency projects.

This five-year program will provide significant financial incentives to speed up investment in electricity saving projects and equipment retrofits so that the rate of return is competitive with other capital projects. In exchange, companies will contractually commit to achieve specific conservation targets within a set period of time and to maintain them over the term of the contract.

Through the implementation of process-wide energy reduction measures, this program is designed to deliver bottom-line results:

• financial incentives covering up to 70% of eligible design, engineering, equipment and installation costs
• improved reliability, productivity and product quality
• potential electricity cost savings as high as 30%
  

Over five years, the program will also help drive the development of an estimated 5,500 net jobs in the province.

This program is designed for industrial entities that are directly connected to the IESO-controlled grid. For industrial entities that are not transmission-connected, Ontario’s Green Energy Act calls for local distribution companies (LDCs) to take a lead role in the delivery of conservation programs to their own customers. The Ontario Power Authority has started discussions with LDCs about developing a program to effectively meet the needs of distribution-connected industrial customers.

The Ontario Power Authority published the draft program rules for the Industrial Accelerator program in December 2009. During the 60-day comment period, the Ontario Power Authority received valuable input from interested stakeholders. The comments were extremely helpful in finalizing the program rules and contracts.

Below are posted the final program rules and a sample of the Industrial Accelerator contract:

• Program Rules
  
• Project Incentive Agreement
  
• Preliminary Engineering Study Funding Contract
• Detailed Engineering Study Funding Contract
  
  

More information about the Industrial Accelerator, including details on how to apply for the program, is available on the Industrial Accelerator website at: www.industrialaccelerator.ca.