POWER January 2014 - 60

POWER QUÉBEC
Global Business Reports
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ministration has promised Hydro Québec's
preferential L pricing rate for large power
users and a 10 year corporate tax holiday
for companies investing more than C$300
million in data centers. Nonetheless, these
measures were not the decisive factors
for the private sector players' interest in
Québec " The current incentive scheme's
barrier-to-entry is too high, even for a project
of our scale, of 100,000 square feet.
However, there is a tremendous amount
of IT infrastructure expertise in Québec,
which also has a lot of pent-up demand for
data center space: overall, we are very excited about this market's
perspectives, " concluded Edward.
Energy efficiency's fight in a low-cost
electricity environment
Québec's abundant power generation has made the province a
continental leader in low-cost electricity. Recent Hydro-Québec
studies show that the average electricity prices in Montreal for
residential customers were 6.76 c/kWh, compared to 22.57 c/kWh
in NYC, or 13.89 c/kWh in Calgary. Furthermore, for large power
customers, Montreal prices were at the 4.76 c/kWh mark, where6.4
MW of uninteruptable power. Photo courtesy
of Kelvin Emtech
as NYC and Toronto's costs were more
than double that figure, at 11.55 c/kWh and
10.60 c/kWh, respectively. Stimulating efficiencies
in this context was always going
to be an uphill battle for Québec's energy
efficiency players, even with a helping hand
from their government.
" The 1990s was a tough period for the
energy efficiency market as power was
relatively cheap. However, in 2000, the
price of gas escalated, creating a new
market for energy efficiency. During this
period, Québec's Liberal government introduced
new legislation that institutions should reduce their energy
consumption by 15% and attached to this legislation were grants
and rebates, " explained André Rochette, founder of Ecosystem,
a company specialized in HVAC (heating, ventilation and airconditioning/cooling)
management. Since its creation in 1993,
Ecosystem expanded its reach abroad (Toronto/NYC), while also
securing local landmark projects, such as Montréal Biodôme's
energy optimization.
Heat recovery systems are also Sofame Technologies' specialization.
Set up in 1984, the business has since developed innovative
proprietary technologies, such as the Percotherm®, Percofrac™,
or Percomax® industrial-scale water heaters; to date, the
company has over 330 projects in its portfolio. John Gocek, CEO
of Sofame Technologies, discussed the market's receptiveness:
" Québec has been a productive market for us; it is a high heating
zone because of its cold temperatures. It is not difficult to explain
to our customers the cost saving and environmental benefits of
recovering waste heat. Since 2008, customers' budgets have been
tight however - that is a high hurdle, but we are still finding lots
of opportunities at large power plants and multinational corporations
with environmental objectives. The big trend today is district
integrated cogeneration plants, emitting waste heat at various high
temperatures; Sofame's direct contact technology recovers almost
100% of waste heat, regardless of scale. A high-profile project for
Sofame and recipient of an ASHRAE award is Montréal's Trudeau
Airport; we are achieving 97% boiler-room efficiency, and the airport
is being heated at 140F by waste heat from the boilers. The
project has become the model for future heating in the industry. "
Initially founded as a systems' integration firm, Distech Controls
is a Québec-grown energy management company which saw its
international business take off in the early 2000s in markets such
as Asia and Europe. Having been one of the first Canadian companies
to adopt open systems and standards for energy control
technology, Distech is now targeting the full spectrum of commercial
and institutional buildings: " Distech Controls pushed the
implementation of open standards further, by standardizing our
technology solution on recognized open protocols not only for the
products themselves, but also by embracing " open " business practices.
As an example, we made our programming software freely
available, to all end user clients. Combining open technologies with
an open business model, clients could optimize and improve their
processes, select best of breed products, only limited by their
needs, and this changed the way business was done at the time.
Building owners want comfort, energy efficiency and to make their
buildings greener - they seek freedom when it comes to technol16
Global
Business Reports // POWER QUÉBEC
January 2014
http://www.gbreports.com
POWER January 2014

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