The Ontario Power Authority (OPA), in response to a direction from the Minister of Energy, is implementing a new six year conservation framework. The Conservation First Framework is designed to reduce electricity consumption by 7 terawatt-hours (TWh) or seven billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) by December 31, 2020.

The Conservation First Framework will provide local distribution companies (LDCs) with long term, stable funding for Conservation and Demand Management (CDM) programs. It will give LDCs greater flexibility and autonomy to design and deliver conservation programs that meet local needs, strengthen regional collaboration and cooperation with natural gas utilities and enhance accountability on the part of the OPA and distributors to deliver cost-effective conservation programs.

In collaboration with LDCs, the Electricity Distributors Association and natural gas utilities, the OPA has developed a draft Tool Kit that will help LDCs design their CDM Plans to cost effectively meet local customer needs. The Tool Kit was launched on July 31, 2014 and is available at powerauthority.on.ca/2015-2020-conservation-first-framework.

The Tool Kit is divided into four main categories:

  1. Targets and Budgets
  2. Rules and Guidelines
  3. Planning Process and Tools
  4. Contract

Clicking on the links above will take you to a set of documents within each category. All interested stakeholders are invited to review the Tool Kit and provide their feedback by completing the Tool Kit Feedback Form and submitting it to [email protected]. The Tool Kit is expected to be finalized by November 2014.

Webinar
The OPA will be hosting an information webinar on the Conservation First Framework on Tuesday, August 26 at 2:00 p.m. (ET).

New rules concerning businesses are about the same as before, except OPA does not offer incentives for demand reduction anymore, only for saving energy.

Drafted rules can be found at the links below:

Rules for saveONenergy Programs