Manitoba Hydro will give small businesses energy and water efficient devices

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This article was published 22/10/2015 (3958 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Hydro wants to help independent small businesses save money on their lighting and water bills — and one Winnipeg restaurant operator says he’s happy to oblige.

Joe Loschiavo, owner/operator of Pasquale’s Ristorante & Pizzeria, was one of the first to sign up for Hydro’s new $2-million Power Smart Shops program, which was officially launched Thursday at a news conference in Loschiavo’s Marion Street eatery.

Lloyd Kuczek, Hydro’s vice-president of customer care and energy conservation, said Power Smart staff replaced, free of charge, 49 of Pasquale’s incandescent light bulbs with LED bulbs to reduce energy consumption and installed low-flow, pre-rinse spray valves in the kitchen to cut down on the amount of water being used.

Kuczek said those two simple changes should save the restaurant about $850 a year in operating costs. If Loschiavo goes ahead with some additional lighting-system retrofits — of which Hydro will cover up to 70 per cent of the cost — the savings will be more than $1,000 a year going forward, Kuczek added.

Loschiavo said the decision to sign up for the program was a “no-brainer” for him.

“Small business needs all the breaks we can get. So when Hydro approached me, I was very excited about it because… we have to look for every way we can to reduce our overhead costs. And this was just an easy opportunity for us to do that.”

He said he’s also interested in doing some additional lighting-system upgrades and maybe installing a high-efficiency furnace.

“Whatever we can do, we will take a look at it and implement it because, like I said, every dollar counts for a small business when it comes to controlling costs.”

Kuczek said because the upgrades Hydro is offering are either free or available at up to a 70 per cent discount, the corporation expects a strong, positive response. He noted all 10 of the businesses approached so far have signed up for the program.

Power Smart Shops is based on a similar program that ran from May 2009 to October 2010, in which about 700 Winnipeg businesses participated.

Hydro said it expects about 5,000 businesses to participate in the new program by the time it ends March 31, 2021. And the combined savings for participants is expected to be close to $5 million, it added.

One of the big benefits for Hydro, said public affairs director Scott Powell, is the program will reduce the local demand for electricity, which reduces the loads on Hydro’s generating stations and neighbourhood substations. “Which means we don’t have to build as many plants,” he said.

Manitoba Jobs and Economy Minister Kevin Chief noted small businesses create more than 75 per cent of all new jobs in Manitoba. So anything that helps them also helps the provincial economy.

“What the Power Smart Shops program does is help independent business owners keep more money in their pockets that in turn can be used to grow their business and even hire additional employees,” Chief said.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca