Energy Conservation Programs for Low
Income Families
OEB LEAP Conservation Working Group
Cheryl Bezanson, Program Manager, Market Development
Thursday June 25, 2009
Overview
• About Enbridge Gas Distribution
– Enbridge’s low income customer reach
– Customer care approach
• Low Income Conservation Programs
Enbridge Service Area
Enbridge’s low-income households
4,500,000
Ontario households
2,700,000
Ontario households in Enbridge
franchise
485,000
Low income households in Enbridge
franchise
170,000
Owner occupied low-income
households (pay utility bills)
104,000
Owner occupied low-income
households with natural gas
Enbridge Emergency Relief/Assistance and
Customer Support
• Winter Warmth – low income
conservation program applications
available
• Winter hardship program
– May refer customer to social agencies
• Golden Age Service
• Customer Support, i.e., payment
arrangements, budget billing plan,
disconnection and reconnection
arrangements
Enbridge Low Income Conservation Programs
• Programs include:
– Various Market Transformation
Initiatives
– Enhanced TAPS
– Weatherization Program
Low Income Market Transformation
• Low Income Education and
Supporting Activities
– Green Boxes (included Enhanced TAPS
applications) delivered through food banks
– 2009 initiative under development
– Workshops with social agencies through
SPNO
– Targeted advertising in community/ethnic
media
– Press releases, MP and MPP mailings,
transit ads, etc.
– Working with United Way and community
based agencies to provide program
information and referrals
Enhanced TAPS Program
• Enhanced TAPS Program – launched 2005
– Free installed programmable thermostat, up to 2 low-flow
showerheads and kitchen/bathroom faucet aerators and 4
CFLs for self installation
– Typical energy savings:
• Up to $42 in natural gas bill plus programmable thermostat savings
• T-stat savings typically are 6% in the colder months if temperature is
lowered 3 degrees while sleeping or away from home
• $120 per year on water and sewer bill
– Program delivered by contractors across the franchise
through neighbourhood blitzes in identified low income areas.
Home Weatherization Program
• Home Weatherization – launched 2007
– Delivery of home energy audits (including blower-door test) to
identify eligible homes for implementation of cost-effective
building envelope upgrades to increase air tightness.
– Measures include:
• Caulking and weather stripping around doors and door frames,
around window casings, around headers and baseboards and attic
hatches
• Insulation into wood framed wall cavities and crawl spaces, attics,
and basement walls
– Second audit completed after measures implemented
– Average utility cost of measures: about $2600 per home
Home Weatherization Program
– Application process through delivery partners
– Income qualifiers are:
• Income level at or below 146% of LICO
• Or
– Receiving Ontario Works (OW) benefits
– Receiving Ontario Disability Support (ODSP) benefits and meets income
criteria
– Guaranteed Income Supplement
– Allowance for Seniors
– Allowance for Survivors
– National Child Benefit Supplement
– Reside in low-rise social housing paying natural gas bill
– Home generally needs to be 25 years old or older
– Program offered in GTA, York, Durham, Peel, Ottawa and
launching in Niagara Region in July.
Home Weatherization Program
– Typical energy savings: 2008
•
•
•
•
208 homes retrofitted
Average 1,134 m3 of gas per home
Average 165 kwh of electricity per home
Typical annual natural gas bill savings: about $500
Testamonials
From: Catherine Burn [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: December-06-07 12:11 PM
To: Agatha Pyrka
Subject: Sincere Thank You
Dear Agatha,
Thank you Agatha for processing my application to be a candidate for the
Green$aver Program. You have been professional and gracious in each of our
contacts and I am truly grateful to you and your thoughtful and caring
assistance.
Green$aver and Enbridge have done a wonderful thing in helping people like
me with minimal income through making it possible to reduce the energy used
to heat our homes. Green$aver's staff such as Carl Chen, the energy advisor,
Isaac Smith and Jim Caldwell who did the work and the additional helpers on
the Friday (regret I did not get their names), were highly professional and
personable.
I would like to specifically mention Isaac Smith, who I found to be one of
those natural leaders with co-workers. They deferred to him, took guidance
from him, and while he may not even realize, he was their Supervisor or Team
Leader and he did his job admirably with patience and in a modest manner he simply knew what needed to be done and how it should be done and
ensured
it was done in a professional and competent manner. I hope the management
of
your Company will acknowledge these natural skills Isaac Smith has in
working with a range of different people. He is very respectful to the home
owner and is very respectful to his team.
Actually, everyone I had contact with has been polite, helpful, competent
and professional. I hope someone will let Enbridge know how much people
like
me have appreciated the service and hold both Enbridge and Green$aver in
high regard as a result of this project.
Thank you Agatha, for you were my first contact and I was so
hopeful that I
might qualify for your service. In the evening when I would
finish my
chores, and sat to watch the news, I would have a blanket
over my lap and a
scarf or a hat on my head holding on to a hot water bottle.
The temperature
in the kitchen was almost always 62 F in the mornings and the
evenings. My
daughter can't stand being so cold all the time. I kept my
thermostat at 68
F to conserve energy and in summer I kept it at 74 F with the
same thing in
mind. But still, it was always so cold in the winter and so hot
in the
summer.
I am hoping the work to insulate the roof will help with less
damage to the
house with the melting snow and ice coming in under the
shingles even though
the roof was re-shingled with ice shields less than 10 years
ago. I didn't
understand my roof was so poorly insulated and this caused a
lot of the
problems with loss of heat and drafts and the like. You will
never know the
difference you have made in the quality of my and my
daughters lives, and I
look forward to warmer days and nights this winter.
God bless you and your associates at Green$aver, and the
Management at
Enbridge for making this project available to people with
minimal income and
unable to do this for themselves without incurring a huge
financial burden.
Sincerely,
Catherine Burn
Results
Enhanced TAPS
Low Income Weatherization
2007 Audited TRC Results
2007
2007 Fixed &
Participants TRC Net Benefits Net Gas Savings Variable Costs
4,109
5,146,530
1,895,779
864,776
61
76,299
70,760
314,912
Total
5,222,829
Enhanced TAPS
Low Income Weatherization
1,966,539
1,179,688
2008 Pre-Audited TRC Results
2008
2008 Fixed &
Participants TRC Net Benefits Net Gas Savings Variable Costs
2838
1,808,514
346,967
372,503
208
218,273
237,744
623,582
Total
2,026,787
Market Transformation
2007
2008
2009
Budget
140,000
150,000
170,000
584,711
Actual
325,000
183,540
996,085
Challenges
• Weatherization program uptake
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
low awareness
lack of trust
hesitant to self identify
language barriers
disruption of household
follow up painting
TRC restraints
What Worked
• Ottawa – leveraged delivery partner’s relationship
with Ottawa Community Housing
• Workshops with SPNO to raise program awareness
amongst front line social agency personnel
• Program applications (Enhanced TAPS) through
Green Boxes where Food Banks held workshops with
clients
• Press releases – received some coverage and
delivery partner received increased inquiries
What Didn’t Work
• Media – transit, transit publications
• E-mail blast to Ontario Association of Seniors
members
• Chinese Association newsletter
• Winter Warmth – only small number of referrals to
Enhanced TAPS and no referrals to Weatherization
program
Note: Social service agency referrals program and
alignment with LDC low income initiatives are key to
results
Questions
Cheryl Bezanson
Program Manager, Enbridge Gas Distribution
Phone: 416-495-6199
E-mail: [email protected]