Mark Bialic, president of Eurocom Corp. (Darren Brown, OBJ)

While business owners often believe that efforts to reduce power consumption will affect their bottom lines or disrupt operations, energy experts argue that certain measures can actually translate into significant savings.

"Anytime you can make your (office) building more efficient, whether it's a product or maintenance issue such as retrofitting, it's going to lower your demand and your consumption as well," says Wayne Beamish, president of Ottawa-based Energyshop Consulting Inc., an independent energy consulting company.

This summer, brownouts have loomed over Ontario as homes and businesses crank up the air conditioning to cope with sweltering temperatures amid rising energy costs. Conservation groups are predicting a large-scale blackout similar to the one that paralyzed Ottawa businesses in 2003 and the provincial government has repeatedly pleaded with energy users to conserve as much as possible.

"A lot of businesses don't realize that a lot of rates on their bills are based on demand charges, which can be $2 to $4 per kilowatt. So if you can bring down your demand number by 10 per cent, that's a big chunk off your bill," Mr. Beamish said.

Lowering the demand can be done in any number of ways, he adds.

For the high-tech sector, and virtually any Ottawa business that uses a lot of hydro to power desktops, a new breed of energy-efficient computers could be the answer, according to Mark Bialic, chief executive of local firm Eurocom Corp.

Mr. Bialic says that each of his company's new liquid crystal display (LCD) personal computer run on 160 watts of power, with additional energy-saving features bringing the wattage down to 80 or 90.

This compares to the 500 to 600 watts of power that a conventional desktop can consume, he says, adding the direct savings for each LCD PC can be $150 per year. Companies may also find they don't need to use as much energy to cool overheated IT equipment if they go with LCD PCs. Switching to these energy-efficient machines could save a company roughly 20 per cent in cooling costs, he says.

Meanwhile, Advanced Engine Technology Ltd. continues to work on a power back-up system for small businesses that protects users from outages. The natural-gas fuelled, seven-to-15-killowatt generator is coupled with a smart meter, and utilizes its own waste heat to lower a firm's energy bill during daily peak periods. Gary Webster, AET's president, says his company is projecting a payback period of six to eight years.

Already on the market are smart meters and electricity monitors that hold promise for commercial landlords as well as individual businesses, says Rob Brennan, chief executive of Almonte-based Triacta Power Technologies.

While it depends on the individual situation of each commercial user, Triacta's electricity monitor can help customers cut their electricity bill by five to 20 per cent, Mr. Brennan says. This is significant when many of Triacta's clients are stomaching $5,000 or more in monthly energy costs. Triacta's monitor pinpoints any inefficient area by surveying each circuit of a business and providing a real-time breakdown of its energy use. This allows a business to decide which areas it needs to retrofit, whether it's a data centre, or the lighting and air conditioning systems, says Mr. Brennan.

Smart meters, which give users a real-time snapshot of their energy use, are devices that companies should be acquainting themselves with — and not only because of the potential energy savings, says Mr. Beamish. According to the provincial government's plans, anyone who demands more than 200 kilowatts per month in energy must have one installed in the next two to three years. By 2010, everyone demanding more than 50 kilowatts per month must have one.

"The commodity price for hydro will suddenly be based on what you use every hour," explains Mr. Beamish. This will force people who normally use in the peak demand times to conserve because they will now face higher prices. "Our clients are starting to realize their price will change based on how they use their power and when."

Smart meters are already helping commercial landlords sub-meter each rental space in their building and put more of the onus on the tenant, says Mr. Brennan.

"When you sub-meter tenants, it's been shown that the building's total consumption goes down 20 to 25 per cent," he says. "So if you have four office towers, you've actually saved enough juice to power another one. That's just from people realizing it's not free anymore and that they need to be more aware of conservation."

Mr. Brennan is confident that the province will introduce legislation this fall that will require the sub-metering of high density buildings and condos.

"People within the (Ontario) Ministry of Energy are quite concerned with ensuring end-users know how much energy they're using," he says. "We're already working with landlords to deploy this."

Mr. Bialic says Ottawa-area businesses that specialize in energy-saving technology need to continue spreading the message on conservation.

"The energy crisis is not going to get better, it will get worse. Everyone needs to plan for this."

By Scott Foster

Special to the Ottawa Business Journal