Features Energy Management
Energy Productivity may mean savings

Jan. 9, 2009, Guelph, Ont. – Need help cutting energy costs? Check out Energy Productivity, a full-service energyconservation and efficiency program helping growers, farmers andproducers increase sustainability through energy improvement andmanagement.

Jan. 9, 2009, Guelph, Ont. – Need help cutting energy costs? Check out Energy Productivity, a full-service energyconservation and efficiency program helping growers, farmers andproducers increase sustainability through energy improvement andmanagement.

Offered by Ag Energy Services, a division ofAg Energy Co-operative, the program has identified approximately $80 million in potential savings available to the agriculture sector through reductions in energy use and improved energy efficiency. The program has four major modules:

• Energy analysis and auditing – to understand the customer's energy use, benchmark performance and identify the improvements.

• Energy action plans – to align energy conservation and improvement projects into the business plans of the customer, arrange financing and secure government conservation incentives.

• Implementation – to ensure equipment upgrades and operational changes are implemented according to customer's needs and government certifications.

• Carbon management – will provide a potential revenue stream back to the customers through the sale or trading of carbon credits where customers reduce their carbon footprint.
 
“The economic challenges we all face hit agriculture especially hard,” notes Ag Energy Co-operative executive director Mike Bouk. “This program will help farmers capture a portion of the $80 million by energy cost reductions or avoided costs, and improve their own sustainability.”

Flexibility is key. The modular design of the program allows customers to implement the full program of all four modules or have the modules customized one module at a time to suit their needs. In either case, Ag Energy Services handles the headaches and collaborates with the customer to ensure they are pleased with the results.

“Energy Productivity will enable farmers to get the most from their energy dollar by investing in their own efficiency projects that make business sense,” explains Ag Energy Services director Chris Hanlon. “The program is not a handout to farmers.”

Ag Energy Services will help farmers source applicable rebates, obtain project financing if required, and will undertake initiatives that make economic sense. Initially the program will help greenhouses and will continue to roll out across Ontario to every sector of agriculture over the next year.

Funding for this project was provided in part by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's (AAFC) Advancing Agriculture and Agri-Food Program through the Agricultural Adaptation Council's CanAdvance Program, and also in part by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA).

For more information, contact Chris Hanlon at 866-818-8828 ext. 242, email chanlon@agenergy.coop, or visit www.agenergyservices.ca.