News

Pre-approvals and expanded access a boost to customer projects

We've been working hard recently to streamline our offers for commercial and industrial customers. To get the latest on what that means, we caught up with Tamara Berger, our industrial and large commercial sector manager to find out what's in store for 2024.

"We're offering pre-approvals to purchase equipment, wider access to fully funded feasibility studies and faster approvals for smaller projects," says Berger. "These updates all align with our overall goal to streamline offers for our large business customers to make it easier for them to understand what they have access to."

New pre-approval to purchase – but not install – equipment

Long lead times and supply chain issues are fairly common these days. So waiting for incentives to be approved before ordering equipment can slow down your customer's overall project timeline.

Our industrial team has introduced a new pre-approval to purchase option to help customers complete projects sooner. After customers have applied for their incentive, they'll receive an email with terms and conditions providing the option to pre-purchase equipment, but not to install it. Here's what consultants, contractors and customers need to be aware of:

• Pre-approval to purchase doesn't guarantee the incentive will be approved. It also doesn't guarantee what amount will be received if the incentive is approved. A lot of factors go into reviewing applications to determine final incentive amounts.
• Installing equipment before the incentive is approved may impact the energy savings. We ask that contractors or customers don't install any equipment without approval. We may need to measure or verify the customer's metering to determine the optimum set-up. If customers go ahead and install equipment before they have the agreement, we may not be able to confirm the energy savings, which can also impact the incentive.
• Pre-approval only applies to self-serve incentive program (SIP), low carbon electrification (LCE) and custom projects. Please note that pre-approval to purchase equipment is not available if the funding is from Better Buildings BC incentives, even though they are administered by BC Hydro.

"We're giving customers the option to choose to purchase equipment if they're confident in doing so, but it's their choice to do that," says Berger. "For customers who've done this many times or who are replicating a project at another site, it could speed up the process. However, it's always going to be safer to wait until the incentive is finalized."

There's wider access to fully funded feasibility studies

To help more commercial and industrial customers get access to feasibility studies for projects, the program management team has reduced the threshold for 100% funded studies. This applies to all energy efficiency or electrification feasibility studies, except CleanBC government-funded studies.

"As a value-add for customers who are willing to commit to Strategic Energy Management (SEM) participation with a cohort or an energy manager, there's no claw back for feasibility studies," says Berger. "For non-SEM customers, there's also no claw back – but only if customers move forward with their project."

"We've also introduced the direct pay option for both commercial and industrial customers with energy consultants. We'll pay the consultant direct so that the customer doesn't have any financial outlay for the study."

Once customers have completed a feasibility study with BC Hydro, the findings essentially become the incentive application. The findings contain all the project details at the level of accuracy that BC Hydro needs to move forward.

Approvals now streamlined for projects under $5,000

If a customer's project is under $5,000, they can now enjoy a much more streamlined review process. The program management team reduced the processing time so customers can get agreements for smaller projects done faster.

How can we help with your business?

Learn more online about all our programs and incentives, or ask us a question at alliance@bchydro.com.