City of Mississauga’s Five Year Energy Conservation Plan an Environmental Success

The City of Mississauga has successfully completed its last Five Year Energy Conservation Plan (2014-2019), and will begin a new energy conservation plan for 2019-2023. The plan addresses climate change and energy usage in City buildings.

Within the last five years, the City’s Energy Management team implemented numerous energy conservation projects and initiatives. Some of these initiatives include installation of solar panels to heat outdoor pools, pool drain heat recovery systems, solar pathway park lights and more. These initiatives have greatly reduced energy usage, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy costs.

A summary of results from the last Five Year Energy Conservation Plan (2014-2019) include:

• Energy Use Intensity (EUI) and GHG emissions dropped by 9.3 per cent and 8.1 percent respectively.
• Avoided $1,306,550 in total utility costs.
• Received $1,199,505 in total incentives from utilities due to cost savings.
• Received numerous awards, including:
  • Living City Energy Efficiency award for Mississauga City Hall, three years in a row (2016, 2017, 2018)
  • Best Municipality/University/School/Hospital (MUSH) 1MW+ Customer award (2018)
  • Town Hall Challenge award for Mississauga City Hall (2015)
  • ENERGY STAR® certification for Mississauga City Hall (2018)

The new Five Year Energy Conservation Plan (2019-2023) will build on the success of the last plan. It will provide a systematic, data-driven and facts-based process which focuses on improving energy performance. The plan also aligns with the City’s upcoming Climate Change Action Plan.

A number of new initiatives have been identified under this new plan. Some of these include:

• Implementing ice plant energy upgrades that will have robust ice plant controls and cold water resurfacing capabilities.
• Piloting an Energy Management Information System that collects, manages and analyses data for facility benchmarking, performance tracking, creating energy dashboards and more.
• Implementing lighting upgrades to newer and efficient technologies, including controls that can match building occupancy and natural daylight.
• Installing metering and sub-metering equipment to utilize real-time data for making smarter operational decisions.

To learn more about the Five Year Energy Conservation Plan (2019-2023), visit mississauga.ca/environment.

To learn more about some of the projects that highlight the City’s ongoing leadership in the use of renewable energy, watch the video here.

Another ENERGY STAR® Certification
The City of Mississauga was awarded with a 2019 ENERGY STAR® industry certification by National Resources Canada (NRCan) for Erin Mills Twin Arena, becoming the third ice arena in Canada to be recognized for its energy efficiency.

This achievement was the result of the City reducing its energy use by 17 per cent from 2017 to 2018. The savings were identified through a number of initiatives implemented by the Energy Management team with support from Recreation staff:

• Smart ice plant controls that can control equipment and anticipate varying demands quickly
• Utilizing cold water ice resurfacing technology and practices
• Technology upgrades
• Promoting energy awareness and operation optimization to staff

Mississauga Civic Centre also received an ENERGY STAR recertification after its first designation last year.