Sparking Solar Savings
Oxford is committed to being a leader in the development and operation of energy efficient, low-carbon buildings. This brings both economic and environmental benefits, such as reducing the cost of electricity and focusing on carbon emissions reductions. These two factors, along with the significantly improved economics associated with rooftop solar power, ‘sparked’ Oxford’s pledge to create 1 million SF of rooftop solar by 2024.
To date, we have built over 200,000 SF of solar across our portfolio.
Our first significant solar project at Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto features 600 rooftop solar panels, installed on 20,000 SF and generates over 230,000 kWh of clean electricity/year – equivalent to three months of interior and exterior lighting at the property.
Two buildings in Washington DC – 1101 New York Ave (office building) and Gallery Place (a mixed-use office/retail building) installed 10,000 SF and produce over 100,000 kWh combined annually. In collaboration with our partner New Community Solar, all the clean renewable energy produced from the solar panels is donated to low income households in the community via a credit of 50% off their monthly electricity bills.
In 2019, Oxford’s low-carbon energy, which comprises solar and other renewable energy sources, such as deep lake water cooling, geothermal, and clean grids, accounts for almost 9% of the total electricity usage across our global portfolio.
LED Conversions Drive Savings
Oxford’s Hotels team set their sights on reducing energy consumption through LED retrofits, and the results are impressive.
The InterContinental Hotel, located in downtown Toronto, completed its conversion to 100% LED lighting in early 2019. The five-year project started with converting meeting rooms and the lobby, with the back of house area and guest rooms following. This drove a 20% reduction in electricity and $270,000 (CAD) in annual cost savings.
The other hotels in Oxford’s portfolio, namely, Chateau Whistler, Chateau Lake Louise, Jasper Park Lodge and the Banff Springs, including the Canmore laundry facility also achieved their goals to convert lighting to 100% LED by the end of 2019 and were able to redeem over $145,000 (CAD) in incentives in the process.
Park Hyatt, currently under development, is also expected to be fully fitted with LED fixtures.
The project also included an all-inclusive upgrade to the dimming systems across the hotels’ meeting spaces and is on track to be completed by the summer of 2020.
Through these projects a total of over 58,000 bulbs were installed across 3.8M sq.ft.
New Energy Systems = Big Savings
In 2019, our multi-residential team completed an Ontario-wide energy system upgrade across eight properties. To align with their broader carbon reduction targets, the goal of the project was to upgrade the existing building automation systems (BAS) to one that provided increased visibility and controls. Each building is now equipped with the capability of up to 500 control points, giving the operations team the control they need to manage their mechanical equipment.
What sounded like an easy fix required significant planning to get it right. In addition to finding a partner to help execute on the initiative, the team also saw an opportunity to tap into local energy efficiency incentives from two utilities, Toronto Hydro and Enbridge. Once the equipment was installed, operational data was reviewed daily for several weeks to ensure all settings met performance objectives.
With this effort came great reward. The project achieved an annual energy savings of approximately 345,811 kWh and the overall annual cost savings amounts to $92,000 (CAD).
Continual Improvement in Energy
Innovation, continual improvement and planning for the future – this is what the property team epitomizes day-in and day-out at 1101 New York Avenue, a 12-story office building located in downtown NW Washington D.C. The building was the City’s first LEED Core and Shell Gold certified office building in 2007 and in 2019, achieved LEED Operations and Maintenance Platinum certification.
The team kick started a 3-year operations plan to improve performance. Some of the implemented measures included: installing sub-meters on major building equipment and real-time metering throughout customer spaces; replacing lights to LEDs in the stairwell; replacing and adjusting setpoints on building equipment; re-commissioning VAVs; and collaborating with customers to reduce weekend HVAC usage.
Moreover, the team is more than half way through a Building Automation System (BAS) upgrade. The new system allows for greater flexibility to monitor HVAC and outdoor air intake, and has more functionality, such as remote accessibility, detailed occupancy schedule adjustments, fault detection and diagnostics, and personal control capabilities.
The result of these efforts represent a year-over-year reduction of ~1,500,000 kWh and over $200K (USD) in annual savings (compared to 2017 baseline). Also notable is the result in significant Energy Star score improvement, jumping over 19 points in 2.5 years, to the current score of 81, and anticipated to rise even more as results from 2019 continue to take effect.
Peak Power Fetches Peak Insight
Our Toronto Office portfolio played their cards right and secured $1.8M (CAD) in energy savings for their customers over the last year. Since 2015, these 12 buildings avoided $8M (CAD) in energy costs.
How did they do it?
The Ontario electricity market has a series of regulatory nuances, one being Global Adjustment (GA) which is the portion of the electricity bill that covers the cost of investment in new electricity infrastructure and maintaining existing resources to ensure balance between provincial growing peak demand and generation capacity. Large buildings such as ours in Toronto can minimize their GA portion of the bill by reducing their energy use during provincial peak hours to lessen stress on the grid.
Since 2015, our Sustainability team, in collaboration with the properties, completed an in-depth energy use and rate analysis to determine the best financial option for GA participation. Regardless of the option selected for the year, sites are advised to curtail power during peak demand days, with the support of a peak notification tool developed in-house.
In addition to the financial benefits, the process of energy curtailment helps the operations team uncover new energy conservation measures that can be applied during normal building operations. For instance, this past year, one of the buildings integrated a new feature on their BAS. With one click, operators can switch to ‘power save mode’ to quickly shed energy load.
Making Operations Plans Count
As part of their Building Operations and Maintenance Plan, the team at 450 Park Avenue set out to tackle the low hanging fruit to optimize energy use and reduce carbon emissions. The Plan aims to identify short- and long-term efficiency measures to implement in the future.
In 2019, after researching various new technology, the team decided to install a new HVAC pump system that allows for various automatic speed controls that maintain the correct amount of water to flow through the pumps. This is a major upgrade from the previous manually performed system. Since installation, the team has had no trouble operating the new system, remarking immediate efficiencies. The change is expected to result in 60-70% reduction in electricity, working out to between $10-15K (USD) over a 2-year period.
In addition to developing a plan for the building, the team also met with colleagues across the portfolio to share best practices by reviewing building equipment and Building Automation Controls, revisiting past projects and current practices, and identifying areas for improvement. It was a comprehensive approach that will have long lasting impact.