XLerate
Grants for large electricity-efficiency projects at Ontario non-residential facilities that save at least 600 MWh a year.
Această oportunitate este disponibilă momentan în limba engleză.
Improve electricity use in a large non-residential process, such as manufacturing, pumping, treatment operations or heating and cooling. XLerate pays for verified electricity savings from proven technology, with an optional funded feasibility study to develop the project.
The project incentive is the lowest of four amounts: 75% of eligible costs after third-party contributions; C$300 for each MWh of verified annual electricity savings, capped at 120% of the approved incentive; the amount that leaves a one-year project payback; and C$15 million per project. The cost calculation uses the lower of estimated and actual eligible costs. Payback means eligible costs remaining after the incentive divided by the annual monetary benefits, including electricity and other energy savings, benefits from alternative fuels, changes in operating and maintenance costs (including increases), and other avoided costs. Third-party contributions include both money and the value of goods or services contributed by anyone other than you or IESO.
Owners and operators can also receive 50% of feasibility-study costs, capped at the lower of C$100,000 and 10% of estimated eligible project costs, unless IESO approves otherwise. Third-party applicants cannot receive study funding. The completed study must be approved by the earlier of eight months after its approval letter and 30 April 2027. Payment follows IESO acceptance and supporting cost documentation.
Payment depends on measured performance. The first instalment is 50% of the calculated incentive following approval of the first-quarter report, where savings exceed 50% of those anticipated for that period. The final balance follows the first-year report and likewise requires savings greater than 50% of those anticipated for the year. If first-year performance falls below 50%, no incentive is payable and an earlier instalment is recoverable. Lower savings can reduce the incentive; any overpayment must be repaid within 30 business days of IESO's notification.
Eligibility
- You must be located in Ontario and be solvent. You must own or operate a non-residential facility in Ontario, or be an authorized third party installing and operating a project for that facility. For project funding, you must also be resident in Canada for purposes of the Income Tax Act (Canada). Third parties must demonstrate technical and management capability, agree responsibilities with the facility and obtain the owner's authorization and release, waiver and consent. The facility must connect directly or indirectly to Ontario's electricity grid or distribution system, including behind another connected customer's meter.
- Your project must save at least 600 MWh of electricity per year. Separate projects at different facilities cannot be combined to reach this threshold. Provide a feasibility study or equivalent information accepted by IESO. The project must receive its approval letter by 31 December 2027 and be fully installed and delivering savings within five years of that letter.
- Improvements must support an electricity-consuming industrial process. This includes selected heating and cooling, pumping and treatment systems in industrial, municipal, institutional and other non-residential settings. Technology must have been successfully deployed in an operational setting, the programme's technology readiness level 9 requirement. Savings must last at least 48 months after the measurement and verification reporting period.
- Lighting, electricity generation, electricity-distributor infrastructure and fuel switching are excluded, with the following exceptions: IESO may approve fuel switching; storage can form part of a project if other efficiency improvements offset its storage losses and the whole project saves electricity; qualifying waste-energy recovery can be funded.
- Waste-energy recovery must use waste energy or fuel created on-site unless IESO approves otherwise, and purchased fossil fuels may supply no more than 10% of annual fuel-energy input. Its primary purpose cannot be cutting demand during the five critical system peak hours. Only electricity consumed on-site when generated counts; any net-metered exports must be measured separately and excluded from savings.
- Eligible new-construction costs are limited to the extra cost above the equipment or process that would have been installed without funding; document that baseline. Costs already covered by government grants or supply-chain rebates are excluded, as are leasing and borrowing costs. Incentive invoices to IESO must exclude HST; HST paid to suppliers may form part of eligible costs under programme rules.
- Agree a measurement and verification plan with IESO before approval. It must follow the International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol (IPMVP): set out how electricity use before and after the project will be measured and analysed. Savings calculations must meet a maximum uncertainty of ±25% at 90% confidence unless IESO approves otherwise. Reporting normally covers one year after the project enters service, with first-quarter and first-year reports; IESO may extend reporting to verify savings.
- Obtain IESO's written consent before material changes to the project's scope, equipment specifications, contractors, contributions, costs or schedule. Immediately notify IESO in writing of changes that could reduce anticipated savings. Keep project records and permit audit access for seven years after the electricity-savings period ends. Study records must be kept for seven years after the study terms end or expire.
- You and the facility owners or occupiers must confirm that you would not have undertaken the project without the incentive. For study funding, you must confirm that you would not have undertaken the study without that funding.
How to apply
- Statut
- Deschis continuu
- Condițiile sesiunii de finanțare
- Project approval letter required by 31 December 2027.
- Funded feasibility study must be approved by the earlier of eight months after its approval letter and 30 April 2027.
Use the XLerate Application Workbook linked on the official programme page. Send the signed project application and supporting data, calculations, measurement and verification plan and cost information to XLerate@ieso.ca. IESO and its technical reviewer assess eligibility and the proposed measurement plan before issuing an approval letter.
Apply before committing to contractors or consultants for project work, or ordering or buying project equipment; preparing a feasibility study is excepted. You may proceed after submission at your own risk; IESO encourages waiting for approval.
For the funded-study route, submit the signed study application and supporting documents to the same email address. Obtain IESO approval before starting the study. Costs incurred before the study approval letter are excluded unless IESO approves them in writing. The final report must meet the programme's study requirements and be signed by an independent professional engineer, certified energy manager, certified engineering technologist or another professional approved by IESO.