Examining utility on-bill financing for home renewable energy projects in Essex County

Essex Energy Corporation, in partnership with Essex Powerlines and the Municipality of Leamington, plans to study the feasibility of providing a utility on-bill financing program for residential electricity customers in Essex County who wish to install solar photovoltaic (PV) panels on their homes. The study will also assess expanding the list of eligible measures beyond solar PV to include energy efficiency upgrades, battery storage and electric vehicle charging stations. The envisioned program would be financed by third-party lenders and offered by Essex Powerlines to offset local greenhouse gas emissions, enhance energy conservation and demand management (ECDM), and help customers adopt renewable energy systems without having to bear the upfront costs. Essex Energy Corporation (an energy technology company) and Essex Powerlines (the electric utility) are subsidiaries of Essex Power Corporation, which is jointly and equally owned by four shareholder municipalities: the Town of Amherstburg, the Town of LaSalle, the Town of Tecumseh, and the Municipality of Leamington. Essex Energy Corporation will consult with all four municipalities and share the study results to gauge their interest in participating in a subsequent program design study and future financing program. The study will include the following: 1. Engaging with local stakeholders to ascertain the potential for on-bill financing 2. Assessing interests in and barriers to an on-bill financing program in order to prepare a technical and financial business case that addresses these concerns 3. Developing a marketing strategy, consulting with shareholder municipalities and local distribution companies, and finalizing the study This study is a priority for the utility, and it aligns with existing municipal and provincial plans. These include the Municipality of Leamington’s Energy Conservation and Demand Management Plan (2014) and Essex County’s Regional Energy Plan (2020), which recommends developing a residential retrofit program to increase energy efficiency and meeting a significant portion of electricity demand with on-site solar PV. Moreover, the province has set targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050, and Ontario’s Long Term Energy Plan (2017) relies on distributed energy resources, such as solar PV, being in the province’s energy supply mix over the coming years. It is anticipated that 380 homes across all four shareholder municipalities (just over 1% of Essex Powerlines customers) would participate in the program within the first two years. This would result in energy savings of approximately 7,556 GJ per year and greenhouse gas emissions reductions of 42 tCO2e per year. Economic and social benefits would include job growth, improved home comfort, climate change adaptation, and home energy cost savings, which homeowners can use to pay off the retrofits. Innovative aspect(s): If implemented, this program would be one of the first utility on-bill financing programs in Ontario. This study and the subsequent program could provide valuable information to similarly sized regional utilities that may wish to explore the economic benefits and energy conservation and demand management (ECDM) impacts of a similar program. Replicability: After completing the feasibility study, Essex Energy will attend public forums to share project outcomes and lessons learned with surrounding municipalities and utilities. Among these will be ENWIN in the city of Windsor, which may be interested in replicating the study in that region and pursuing a similar on-bill financing initiative. (Project description from original funding application)