Save on Energy
Receive Up to 75% of Costs to a Max of $5M in Funding.
Save on Energy, an Ontario initiative, provides businesses within the province funding to help transition Ontario towards a greener province via energy saving projects. This initiative is offered through a variety of programs such as: Industrial Energy Efficiency Program, the Retrofit Program, and the Energy Performance Program.
Save on Energy
Amount of Funding
Funding varies by program:
Energy Performance Program
- Pre-Project Incentives – a one-time advance of part of its anticipated Performance Incentive, calculated as follows:
- Baseline Energy Consumption * 2.5% * $0.04/kWh
- Performance Incentives shall be calculated for each Pay-for-Performance Period as follows:
- Energy Incentive Rate of $0.04/kWh multiplied by the Electricity Savings; and
- Peak Demand Incentive Rate of $50/kW multiplied by the Peak Demand Savings.
The Retrofit program
Receive up to 50% of eligible retrofit costs up to $1 million per application.
Industrial Energy Efficiency Program
Receive up to 75% of the amount resulting from the total eligible costs up to $5 million.
Existing Building Commissioning (EBCx)
Investigation Phase: Receive up to $0.06 per sq. ft. of the building area to a maximum of $50,000 per facility and/or 75% of the costs paid to the CP to undertake investigation.
Implementation Phase: Receive up to $0.03 per kWh of confirmed persisting energy savings to a maximum of 30% of the facility’s annual electricity consumption or $50,000, whichever is lower.
Persistence Phase: Receive up to $0.03 per kWh of confirmed energy savings to a maximum of 30% of the facility’s annual electricity consumption or $50,000, whichever is lower.
Save on Energy
Eligible Applicants
Energy Performance Program
- Are owners and/or operators of commercial, institutional, or industrial facilities located in Ontario; and
- Can commit to participating for three years and commit to realizing a minimum of five percent energy savings per facility within two years.
The Retrofit program
- Is a Non-Residential Customer or Recognized Farm Operation;
- Is an owner or lessee of:
- Commercial spaces or buildings, such as offices, retail and grocery stores, restaurants, hotels, and warehouses
- Industrial facilities in sectors such as food and beverage, automotive, plastics, steel, mining, paper, and chemical industries
- Institutional buildings, including hospitals, universities, and municipal facilities
- Multi-family buildings, such as apartments (including social housing) or condominiums
- Agricultural facilities, including dairy, swine, and poultry farms, greenhouses, and nurseries.
Industrial Energy Efficiency Program
- Is a Non-Residential Customer with ownership of, or operational authority over, the Facility in which the Project is expected to be implemented; OR
- Is a Person who will install and operate a Project at the Facility on behalf of the Non-Residential Customer and is not insolvent; and
- If an Applicant is a Third-Party Applicant:
- They must provide sufficient information to enable the IESO to determine the third-party applicant’s managerial and technical capabilities to provide the services it intends to offer to the participating facility over the electricity savings period;
- Their application must outline the roles and responsibilities of the participating Facility and the Third-Party Applicant in order to demonstrate cooperation and commitment; and
- The release waiver and consent must be signed by an authorized signatory of the third-party applicant as well as an authorized signatory of the participating facility.
Existing Building Commissioning (EBCx)
- Be the owner, operator, or manager of a commercial or institutional building; and
- Be an electricity customer with one or more Facilities connected to (or behind the meter of an electricity customer connected to) the IESO-Controlled Grid or a Distribution System.
Save on Energy
Eligible Activities
Energy Performance Program
To be an eligible Facility, the proposed Facility must:
- Have access to hourly interval meter data from a revenue-grade meter.
- Have 12 months of hourly interval meter data for each facility.
- Have consumed a minimum of 1,500,000 kWh per annum during each of the two preceding years.
- Have Baseline Models meeting the minimum standards stated in the M&V Procedures.
- Be connected to, or behind the meter of, an electricity consumer connected to the IESO-Controlled Grid or a Distribution System; and
- Meet any other eligibility programs as outlined in the M&V Procedures.
The Retrofit program
Projects eligible for the Retrofit program are generally those that provide sustainable, measurable, and verifiable reductions in peak electricity demand and electricity consumption. Examples of eligible projects include:
- Lighting retrofits
- Lighting controls
- HVAC redesign
- Chiller replacement
- Variable-speed drive installations
- Incentives are available for a variety of products and technologies to continue to help businesses save on energy costs and increase their competitiveness.
Industrial Energy Efficiency Program
To be eligible to participate in the IEEP, a Project must:
- Is located in one or more Facilities;
- Is comprised of one or more Eligible Measures;
- Deliver the following minimum Electricity Savings:
- 2,000 MWh per year; and
- Has at least 15% of the electrical energy used in the Baseline Model within the Project Boundary.
- Have a Baseline Model for the Project Boundary that produces a Coefficient of Variation of the Root Mean Square Error equal to or less than 15%; and
- Have an In-Service Date that is no later than (i) the third anniversary of the effective date of the Participant Agreement, or (ii) December 31, 2026, whichever
Existing Building Commissioning (EBCx)
Eligible Facilities must:
- have a minimum of 12 months of consecutive energy data;
- have consumed a minimum of 750,000 kWh per annum, not including energy consumed by industrial and manufacturing processes;
- have baseline models meeting the minimum standards;
- not have undertaken a commissioning exercise in the last two years;
- not be participating in a building accreditation system that requires EBCx as a pre-requisite;
- be connected to, or behind the meter of, an electricity customer connected to the IESO-controlled grid or a distribution system; and
- meet any other eligibility requirements as outlined in the M&V Guidelines.
Eligible Projects must include one of the following measures:
- occupant behavioral measures;
- set point and scheduling optimization;
- air and water balancing;
- other operational and maintenance changes; or
- equipment repairs and minor replacements.
Save on Energy
Program Deadline
Energy Performance Program
Applications must be approved by December 31, 2024.
The Retrofit program
Applications must be approved by December 31, 2024 and project must be completed by December 31, 2025.
Industrial Energy Efficiency Program
Round two opens for applications on October 1, 2022 and closes on August 15, 2023. Funding for Round two projects will be awarded in late 2023.
Existing Building Commissioning (EBCx)
Applications are accepted on a continuous intake.