The Commercial New Construction Program provides performance incentives for Part 3 buildings, including:
- MURB
- commercial
- institutional
- light industrial (excludes buildings where manufacturing or industrial process occur)
The incentive targets are based on the building’s major occupancy classification(s):
- Buildings/major occupancies subject to the BC Energy Step Code must achieve the highest step available:
- Retail/office = Step 3.
- MURB/hotel/motel = Step 4.
- Passive House Certification also satisfies this requirement.
- Other buildings/major occupancies must demonstrate at least 30 per cent energy savings over BCBC, using a NECB 2020 reference building.
- Other modelling standards (e.g. ASHRAE) are not permissible.
- Mixed-use buildings must meet blended requirements.
Projects where electricity will NOT be supplied by FortisBC, or the municipal utilities of Summerland, Penticton, Grand Forks or Nelson Hydro, should use gas as the primary energy source (e.g. more than other sources such as electricity) for two or more of these end uses:
- space heating
- ventilation heating
- domestic hot water (DHW)
Use of gas systems can mean one of the following:
- If the only fuel is gas, it must be used in gas absorption heat pumps for heating, DHW or ventilation (e.g. gas-fired heating or DHW boilers, make-up air units, air handling units, etc.)
- For dual fuel systems (electricity and gas hybrid systems), both of these conditions must be followed:
- Gas heating equipment must be sized to be capable of operating the building/facility in absence of the other system, (e.g. gas energy systems are sized for peak load)
- Under the assumption of a normal weather year, the gas-based heating system will be required to operate to some capacity.
For MURBs, corridor ventilation may serve as the ventilation heating end use.
The Demand Side Management regulation criteria should be met for all equipment. For more information, visit fortisbc.com/accountmanager to find an energy solutions manager, key account manager or technical advisor to discuss your project.
Note: While this program primarily supports Part 3 buildings, some Part 9 buildings—such as low-rise MURBs and small mixed-use buildings—may also be eligible, provided they meet all other program requirements, including modelling using Part 3 methodology.
