A more equitable home energy efficiency program in Peterborough

The City of Peterborough plans to undertake a program design study to develop a hybrid-model financing program aimed at driving deep home energy retrofits and encouraging homeowner participation within all income brackets. The city is contemplating offering Local Improvement Charge (LIC) financing to support low-income homeowners or those with low credit scores, on-bill financing for equipment upgrades, and low-interest third-party lending for general home upgrades. The study’s scope will include the following aspects of program design: · Eligibility criteria · Program activities, including integration with other incentive programs · A marketing and communications strategy · An agreement with local schools and the industry around future training needs (to support capacity-building and develop an engagement plan for contractors) · Financial modeling and risk-mitigation strategies · Municipal implementation processes, including a draft LIC bylaw · Stakeholder consultation and public engagement · A client journey (application process) · A monitoring and evaluation plan The proposed program is forecasted to retrofit approximately 275 homes per year, such that a total of 1,100 homes will have been renovated at the end of the four-year implementation period. This is 5.15% of the eligible housing stock in Peterborough. The home retrofits will be primarily geared towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions stemming from home heating. The city is expecting moderate energy reductions of 20–25% for simple equipment replacement, and 40–50% for deeper home energy retrofits. In addition, the city has estimated that the program would create 78.7 to 157.4 new jobs and foster opportunities to improve tradespersons’ skills through a proposed partnership with Fleming College’s School of Trades. The city will also aim to address energy poverty by offering accessible financing to low-income and low-credit-score homeowners. The city will leverage its experience operating the Peterborough Renovates Program over the past six years, which provided funding to low-income households for major home repairs, and which was supported financially by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. The proposed program is aligned with Peterborough’s Climate Change Action Plan, which recommended developing a deep home energy retrofit program to lower household energy use by 40%. It is also aligned with the city’s updated Official Plan (2019), which includes policies to promote greenhouse gas emissions reductions across Peterborough. In September 2019 Council also declared a Climate Emergency and directed staff to consider all measures to expedite actions to reduce emissions. Finally, a draft Community Energy Plan has been developed that advocates for deep energy retrofits of pre-1980 housing stock. Innovative aspect(s): The city’s hybrid model, combining multiple repayment mechanisms to accommodate different community needs and preferences, is an innovative approach that can help drive program participation rates and address energy poverty in the community. The proposed program will be highly customized to community needs in several ways: · By primarily targeting energy-efficiency measures in low-rise residential buildings that predate 1980, particularly in areas where natural gas consumption has been clearly identified within the city’s heat map · By leveraging local strengths such as local credit unions, a local college and a local industry association · By designing a program that complements Enbridge Gas and Hydro One’s programs, as well as the city’s existing flood-prevention program Replicability: While the proposed program will leverage many local strengths, the city is also looking to join with regional partners, such as Hydro One, an electricity utility company in Ontario that is currently developing a residential energy audit program and a fuel-switching program. A similar utility on-bill program could be adopted elsewhere in the province, and learning from a program geared towards low-income residents could be shared with other municipalities with similar social equity goals. (Project description from original funding application)