DND Looking to Save Millions by Measuring Energy Consumption

Published on February 05, 2019

The Department of National Defence has taken on a project that is looking to save millions by monitoring and measuring the energy consumption in 46 of their buildings.

Sarah Evans, Executive Director of Infrastructure and Environment at the Department of National Defence, has said that the project will involve the installation of a sensor or ‘smart meter’, which she says is a more sophisticated version of what could be found in the typical homeowners’ home to measure home energy consumption.

Evans spoke more about the smart meters, saying that it allows them to know which parts of the building consume a high amount of energy, and which parts have the greatest potential to achieve energy savings.

Of all the buildings that the DND currently operates, the 46 that were chosen was partially due to their age. They were not old enough to be nearing their end of use, and they were not new enough to have already been built to the military’s newer and more energy efficient building standard.

The 46 buildings were also chosen to set the data baseline for energy consumption in various types of military buildings; allowing for the data to be interpreted and analyzed to help guide their future endeavours of improving the energy efficiency of their buildings.

The National Research Council has already partnered with the DND for the smart meters project, and they have estimated that it can help to save up to 15 percent of energy costs - that amounts to $25.5 million annually.

This project is part of the DND’s national defence strategy, Greening Defence, which has allocated an approximate $225 million to be put towards improving energy efficiency and reducing the DND’s overall greenhouse gas emissions.

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