energy connections 2018...vancouver in 1997 the initial plan for vancouver was to prioritise...

BCIT Burnaby Campus | September 15th, 2018

Conference Summary Report

ENERGY CONNECTIONS 2018

Energy Connections Conference 2018 | BCIT Burnaby

BC Sustainable Energy Association

Acknowledgments Energy Connections 2018 was a 100% volunteer led initiative. We’d like to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of the BCSEA Vancouver Chapter Steering Committee and volunteers, especially Kenny Yuen, for taking on the role of project manager. Thank you to our sponsors at BCIT, The Real Estate Foundation of BC, The Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Products, Bullfrog Power, HES PV and GreenerPrint. We’d also like to thank our hosts and the AV staff at BCIT, Chartwells Catering, Ash Murni and the Faculty of Forestry at UBC for making Energy Connections 2018 memorable. We would like to acknowledge that all of the moderators and speakers listed in this report, took time out of their weekend to share their knowledge and experience to educate, connect and inspire a group of passionate forward-thinking individuals to further progress clean transportation - thank you moderators and speakers!

Report Contributors Melanie Lazelle Manon Gartside Betsy Agar Lana Gonoratsky

About BCSEA The BC Sustainable Energy Association is a registered charity supporting British Columbia’s transition to a future built on resilient, regenerative production, distribution and use of energy. The association collaborates with government, industry, academic institutions, non-governmental organizations, and citizens to provide education and well-reasoned policy-oriented research, analysis and recommendations on sustainable energy issues to accelerate the province’s transition to a low-carbon economy.



Table of Contents Acknowledgments 2Report Contributors 2About BCSEA 2Table of Contents 3Introduction 4Opening Remarks 4Session 1: Transportation and Land Use Planning 5

Derrick Cheung, Vice President, Strategic Sourcing & Real Estate, TransLink 6Tim Barton, Senior Citywide & Transit Planning Engineer, City of Vancouver 6David Oliver, Co-founder & CEO, Greenlines Technology 7Patricia Bell, Head of Planning and Director of Education, Community Energy Association 8Final Thoughts from Dr. Joe Sulmona 8Session 1 Audience Polls 9

Session 2: Beyond the Barriers to Charging 10Charlotte Argue, Program Manager, Plug In BC 10Neil MacEachern, Environmental Coordinator, City of Port Coquitlam 11Anaïssia Franca, Research Strategy Manager, Canadian Urban Transit Research & Innovation Consortium 12Session 2 Question Posed to the Audience: 14

Session 3: The Future of Freight 15Allan Grant, Vice President Sales, Corvus Energy 16Hans Bleeker, Director of Operations, Go99 17Mike Bains, LNG/CNG Business Development Manager, FortisBC 15Session 3 Audience Engagement - Questions, Comments and Answers 18

Session 4: From Pilots to Industry Drivers 19Tom Hackney, Policy Advisor, BCSEA 19Eve Hou, Project Manager, New Mobility, Strategic Planning and Policy, TransLink 20Kelly Carmichael, Research Associate, BCIT 21Kristina Mlakar, National Operations Manager Canadian Urban Transit Research & Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC) 22Session 4 Looking Ahead Workshop 23

Thank you to our Sponsors! 23



Introduction Energy Connections is an annual conference organized by the BC Sustainable Energy Association that brings together citizens, industry, government and academics to discuss the latest innovations and issues in sustainable energy. This year, Energy Connections 2018 tackled the topic of clean transportation. With innovations in technology and a strong push for a low carbon economy, this was the perfect time to address one of the largest sources of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in British Columbia. Energy Connections 2018 was dynamic, with opening remarks by an elected MLA and four informative and interactive panels that engaged over 120 driven individuals and members of industry, government, NGOs and academics to connect and progress clean transportation in British Columbia. This report includes a summary of the presentations, panel discussion and audience interactions that took place on September 15th, 2018 at the BCIT Burnaby Campus.

Opening Remarks Opening remarks were made by Bowinn Ma, elected MLA for North-Vancouver Lonsdale & Parliamentary Secretary for TransLink, with an introduction from John Dymond, Business Development Manager for the School of Transportation at BCIT. Bowinn works closely with Hon. Selena Robinson, BC Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. Good land use planning is good transportation policy. It builds a strong sustainable economy and provides services for

people. We need safe, reliable and accessible transit. In BC, transportation is responsible for 44% of GHG emissions which translates to 25 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. Every year, half a million passengers are passed up by full buses on the Broadway corridor. The Broadway corridor is the most used transit corridor in North America. Cooperation is needed from all levels of government and society to solve transit issues. BC Premier John Horgan, Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner, Prime Minister Trudeau, Vancouver Mayor Robertson agreed to build the Broadway subway in Vancouver and the Gilford tramway in Surrey. We need to work with local governments, build the right type of housing along corridors at the right price. Transit oriented development in complete communities reduces transportation costs. Most of the growth is going to Surrey and Langley as people are not just working in Vancouver, therefore there is a need to offer transit in the suburban cities. If we build affordable housing options near transit corridors, skytrain use increase. Along with more transit options, we need



housing that people can afford. We need to create tools such as rental-only zoning to create purpose-built rental housing to ease affordability. This kind of tool would be a first of its kind in Vancouver. Past policies were built around cars only, but now the problems are more nuanced and complex. Adding more lanes doesn’t decrease congestion. Smart land use planning and transportation planning need to be integrated. Urban roads should exist to support communities. People should be comfortable to not live tied to their car. Transit can get people home more quickly and ease the flow of goods and facilitate commutes to jobs. All of which are good for the environment.

Session 1: Transportation and Land Use Planning This panel was moderated by Dr. Joe Sulmona, Principal of Sky Blue Sea Enterprises and explored how municipal planners and policy makers are working with mass transit to reduce emissions.



Derrick Cheung, Vice President, Strategic Sourcing & Real Estate, TransLink

TransLink services the lower mainland around the Vancouver region. In Vancouver there are 2.8 million residents, and TransLink sees 1 million boardings across 20 municipalities. Ridership is growing in comparison to other major cities in North America; in 2017 TransLink had record ridership. TransLink has seen the clustering of development around transit and advocates for transit-oriented development, which makes it possible to walk, cycle and take public transit for a large number of trips rather than driving personal vehicles. They have found that 82% of new homes in the region are built within walking distance of transit, and that 65% of future growth will be in regions around key corridors with transport. TransLink plans to facilitate public transport around development through their Adjacent and Integrated Development (AID) Program. The process for this is as follows: The developer pays for infrastructure development; there is then a design process and consultation by experts such as engineering and geotech departments; negotiation to get financial consideration; followed by construction and safety management. The region is expected to receive 1.2 million new residents in the next 30 years. This growing population needs jobs, and as a region we need to ensure the creation of a liveable region; meeting transportation needs to enhance communities, the economy, and the environment.

Tim Barton, Senior Citywide & Transit Planning Engineer, City of Vancouver

In 1997 the initial plan for Vancouver was to prioritise walking, cycling, transit, and goods movement. The vision did not include plans to increase car capacity in the region. The result of this plan was a drop in the number of cars, creation of jobs and an increase in population without the arrival of more cars. Transportation 2040 There is a current bold vision for transportation moving forwards. The plan is for two-thirds of all trips by 2040 to be non-car (foot, bike, transit), and to cap the number of cars at the current level. The priority is on dense and diverse, mixed use, walkable communities and streets around rapid transit stations. Walking and cycling are both a big focus in the plan, and the City intends to make walking and cycling safe, convenient, and comfortable for all ages and abilities. The City has found that cycling is the fastest growing travel mode, and if separate bike lanes are built, people will cycle. The City has also seen transit ridership increasing and expect that the demand for transit will continue. The City has identified that the number of kilometres driven is dropping. For example, the Comox-Helmcken Greenway project saw good outcomes in terms of increased activity, decreased sedentary living, more biking etc.



Cars take up the most space for travel in terms of people moving capacity on the streets but in the future, we can expect to move 50,000 people per hour with bike lanes, transit lanes, and sidewalks. Through this planning the City can double the capacity of streets in the future; this means less lanes for general purpose traffic. These will be decisions that we will need to make in future.

David Oliver, Co-founder & CEO, Greenlines Technology

The problem Greenlines Technology is trying to fix is congestion and pollution. In 2016 there were 2.4 billion private vehicle trips in Metro Vancouver. In 2017, around 240 million trips were made by TransLink users and less than 10 million trips were made using shared mobility trips. A 5% reduction in private car trips improves congestion by 30%, increases public transport by double, and sees 8x more shared mobility trips. There are many solutions to reducing private car trips or tackling these challenges, such as: electric vehicles, micro-mobility, car-share, e-scooters, fuel standards, telecommuting, congestion pricing, mass transit, ride hailing, carpooling, and land development.

According to John Moavenzadeh of the World Economic Forum - Head of Mobility Industries and System Initiative Member of the Executive Committee, the answer is: designing a seamless integrated mobility system that connects and integrates different modes of transport. This statement is supported by the World Bank, OECD and others. Metro Vancouver has over 70 transport vendors across the region, compared to 150+ estimated number of transportation vendors in other large North American cities. Most people are not aware of their options, so they end up driving and as a result, these unused services usually don’t last. Having open data available is important to integrating services and also to see what gaps exist

so options can flourish. We need to combine all of the options available to help the public better plan their trips on their phone; all integrated together so people know the different ways of getting where they need to go. Greenlines Technology is developing a platform for this and is moving from a pilot to a large scale deployment.



Patricia Bell, Head of Planning and Director of Education, Community Energy Association

Municipalities have control of over 66% of infrastructure in their areas; therefore, through their policies and programs they have strong influence. Municipalities can affect 50% of the emissions in their communities. However, they only get 6% of taxes and choose to either conserve and not spend as much on infrastructure, or seek more funding. This is their ongoing challenge. In BC, emissions are much higher in the north of the province than the south. This is due to climate, terrain, community growth, etc. Growth is an important determinant to how land use planning can work. There are several elements for councils to consider to reduce emissions in their communities:

1. Distance of travel - through land use planning 2. Modes of travel - through transit and active/assisted infrastructure 3. Size - tackled through outreach 4. Fuel - EV charging infrastructure

There are Electric Vehicle Charging Station Corridors in BC and municipalities can look at electrification of the council fleet. While currently charging points are most condensed in certain areas and corridors, Northern BC is planning to install in infrastructure in 2019-2020 for electric charging. The Community Energy Association offers a Certificate in Community Energy Management for anyone interested in taking forward their education.

Final Thoughts from Dr. Joe Sulmona

We need to think long term about infrastructure and look ahead in terms of land use planning. By-laws say no-one can compete with TransLink, but we see companies like Uber and Lyft doing just that in other major cities. BC has the challenge of a significant rural-urban divide - we must invest in airports and highways, and consider how to connect the regions. The impediments to these implementations are mainly policy-oriented. In summary, we need to fail quickly if options don’t work, or scale quickly for things that do. BC needs hard political debate and choices to support the options. We need plans that



integrate together, a system that people have trust in, and agencies who want to integrate, in both the private and public.

Session 1 Audience Polls

• Poll 1

Traffic hot spots that also impact bus users often happen when high-density developments get located on already busy transportation corridors. Should major development be moved away from these corridors to spread traffic impacts across urbanized areas?

o The majority of the audience answered - NO

• Poll 2 Road pricing (at point of use) is being considered here to reduce congestion and pollution, and indirectly to generate revenues for transportation system development. Will the introduction of direct road pricing encourage residents to significantly alter their choices of where to live and work?

o The majority of the audience answered - YES

• Poll 3

Land-use proposals often create conflicts in the community arising from traffic impacts. Better ways are needed to bridge the gap towards public acceptability and to overcome elements of ‘NIMBYism’. How can citizens better influence land use and transportation decisions?

1. More meaningful consultation from government and development proponents 2. Greater use of electronic engagement 3. Increase visibility during election cycle

o Out of the answer

options, the greater use of electronic engagement was the most popular answer, with other options including:

§ Consultation from general public

§ Broader rezoning § The most popular

decisions are not always the best decisions



Session 2: Beyond the Barriers to Charging This session was moderated by Joey Dabell, Project Leader at the Centre for Applied Research and Innovation (CARI) at BCIT. Session Two introduced participants to a wealth of successes and pilots surrounding electrical load management, 100% EV-ready Multi Unit Residential Buildings (MURBs), and seamless mobility.

Charlotte Argue, Program Manager, Plug In BC

BC’s electric vehicle (EV) uptake is above the Canadian average uptake. Year over year, electric vehicle sales are massively increasing; we’re approaching 70,000 on the road, and 3.7% of all new vehicle sales are EV in BC. Current Programs Supporting EV Uptake: EVs are more expensive up front. To address this, the province has an incentive program where buyers can get up to $5,000 back. The BC Scrap-It Program gives money back for scrapping an older car and choosing a new ($6,000 incentive) or used ($3,000 incentive) EV. The Specialty-Use Vehicle Incentive Program covers incentives for everything not captured in the personal use car above. This program supports commercial fleets, such as forklifts. Plug In BC is trying to convince commercial fleets to transition to EV and supports this through the West Coast Electric Fleet program. This is a peer to peer program where fleet managers collaborate and pledge an expansion to EV vehicles. So far 65 BC fleets have pledged to expand their use of EVs. There are over 1,300 public charging locations, and the majority are free. There are over 3,000 station outlets too. Public charging is really important to an EV friendly community, but we also need access to home charging as this is where people charge the most. We need charging stations in condos and apartments as 44% of BC residents live in multi-family dwellings. There is an incentive program to support people to put in charging stations, but this is almost at capacity. The MURB Charging Program - Multi-Use Residential Buildings (MURB) need some future proofing to wire in stations for multi family dwellings. For existing buildings there are a lot of considerations, so part of the program is to provide advisory support to assist with answering questions. Those with inquiries should email [email protected].



Local councils are introducing policy/bylaws that new constructions need EV. For example, the Cities of Vancouver, Richmond and Burnaby have committed to 100% of new construction requiring charging. The Emotive Program Plug In BC has launched Emotive - the electrical vehicle experience. This program promotes electric vehicles and raises awareness through drawing on the emotional appeal of EV’s, and promoting them through events and social media.

Neil MacEachern, Environmental Coordinator, City of Port Coquitlam

In the Port Coquitlam area, 40% of emissions are from light/passenger vehicles and 25% of emissions are from heavy vehicles. 77% of households are owners, so it may not be as difficult to install stations in your own home. 23% are renters who have more of a challenge to installing charging stations, as they might not be able to get approval or don’t want to invest in a non-permanent dwelling. 39% of households reside in detached homes, 26% in apartments and 35% in MURBs, with the latter two facing more challenges for EV charger installations. The region requires all new residential developments to include EV charging roughed in. This includes one parking space per every level of development. There are a number of regulatory barriers to EV infrastructure that must be pointed out:

● The Strata Property Act - this provides the authorisation to modify buildings. Charging modification needs approval from Strata but awareness is quite low.

● The Utilities Commission Act (UCA) - this is a disincentive for public players to get cost recovery as they can’t charge for power and can’t sell the power to EV users.

● The Union of BC Municipalities Resolutions - There was a petition for a right to charge provision act in the Strata Property Act. This means they won’t be able to say no arbitrarily. This was asked for, but not successful. However, they were successful in getting an order that Strata organizations can charge a fee for power.

● There was a Petition to exempt EV charging from UCA and now there is a BC Utilities Commission Inquiry

Port Coquitlam is installing public charging stations and encouraging businesses to install chargers too. Port Coquitlam is also developing Strata Bylaw Guidelines, as Stratas need a framework to be able to distribute and sell EV charging. The recommendation is for developers to embed the guidelines into policy before the development is handed over as this makes it easier for people to petition for EV.



Anaïssia Franca, Research Strategy Manager, Canadian Urban Transit Research & Innovation Consortium

The Consortium’s Program Pillars

● Zero emissions and low carbon propulsion system ● Smart vehicle and smart infrastructure ● Big data advanced mobility ● Cybersecurity in mobility ● Pan-Canadian Electric Bus Demonstration and Integration Trial

Pan-Canadian Electric Bus Demonstration and Integration Trial The main benefit of electric buses is the decreased amount and cost for maintenance. Electric buses run on a clean fuel source, are cheaper over the long run, are quiet, and do not emit particulate matter, resulting in improved air quality. There are two charging options for electric buses. The first option is ‘Slow Charging’ where the bus charges in the depot or garage at around 150kw/h max. In this option the bus has big batteries and at the end of the day comes back to the depot. The other charging option is ‘Fast Charging’ which is the objective of the Pan-Canadian Electric Bus Demonstration and Integration Trial. The bus is quickly charged at the end of each terminal and could even be charged while people are getting on or off the bus, as it only takes a few minutes. Previously, there were no standards for electric buses, but CUTRIC is now starting this conversation with this trial.



CUTRIC is working with 2 different bus manufacturers and charging manufacturers. The project is running in three phases:

● Phase 1 - Spring 2019 will see the launch of four electric battery buses along Marine Drive in Vancouver. These buses will use Fast Charging, not in-depot charging. CUTRIC is also doing a hydrogen fuel cell bus demonstration and integration trial. The benefit of hydrogen cells includes low incremental costs to scale, while the opposite is true for electric buses scaling.

● Phase 2 - Involves expanding to more routes and an integrated charging system ● Phase 3 - Involves an automated charging system

With buses you know their exact route and timing, and so throughout the trial they are using modelling and use this information to identify charging time, energy consumption, and predictions to compare the options to diesel buses in terms of GHG savings.



Session 2 Question Posed to the Audience:

The panel received the following answers to questions posed to the audience: 1. If we’re trying to increase interest in electric vehicles, what messages or actions do you think will have the greatest impact? Some audience suggestions included:

● “Make it personal so the public can relate to EV adoption on an emotional level. For example, an image of a child with asthma prevented from playing sports as a result of poor air quality.”

● “Encourage viewers to go out and test drive a few electric vehicles to get a feel for them.”

● “Communicate the benefits of owning an EV over combustion vehicle, such as saving money on maintenance, gas, etc.”

2. Considering the transit route closest to you, would you be more likely to take the bus if it was electrified with a battery or run by hydrogen? Do you have a different opinion on either? Some audience responses were:

● “In Vancouver electric trolley buses are 65% of transit uses” ● “Hydrogen is not efficient, it is more energy intensive and made from natural gas

reclamation, can gum up fuel cell and don’t last long” ● “Electric buses would still be stuck in traffic. It depends on how fast it gets me to where

I need to be.” ● “Hydrogen technology has historically not been found to be effective and electrical

technology is the most cost effective” ● “I would take more public transport if it was electric; this would prove transits’

commitment to preventing climate change which would encourage me to do my part too”

3. If you don’t already own an EV what is the main barrier to you owning one? Some audience responses were:

● “I don’t plan on owning any vehicle, full stop.” ● “There is not much data available on the different car options and how to compare to

users’ current cars. That data should be made available to help compare the options.” ● “People drive similar vehicles as their neighbours. EVs need to have signs saying

they're electric, and all the stations need to be really obvious as they're so inconspicuous.”

● “I wouldn't buy the first EV version as these consumers are the beta testers. The data doesn't exist about mileage, or to show that EVs are more reliable, or about what happens when the battery comes to end of life. EVs have 20 moving parts versus 2000 moving parts for combustion, but what are new battery and reconditioned battery options, as these will need to be disposed of and replaced.”



Session 3: The Future of Freight This session was moderated by Jeffrey Phillips, Managing Director of Dawson Strategic. It explored multi-modal technologies developed by local companies that help reduce emissions around the movement of container goods on our road, rail and waterways.

Mike Bains, LNG/CNG Business Development Manager, FortisBC

Natural Gas for Transportation in BC - One Path to a Sustainable Future Fortis Gas is a Gas and Electric utility leader in North America, with 10 utility operations in Canada, the US, and the Caribbean. They are the largest provider of energy in the province of BC, with 1.1 million customers. Emissions from the transport sector (road, domestic aviation, railways, and other off-road transportation) account for over a 1/3 (39%) of the Province’s total GHG emissions (2015). This is 25.4 million tonnes of CO2 from the total 63.3 million tonnes. On road transportation accounts for 28% of total provincial emissions. A range of incentives and regulations are supporting the development of Natural Gas for Transportation (NGT) in BC, and now there are more than 850 CNG/LNG heavy duty vehicles in BC:



FortisBC supports end-to-end services for NGT customers, including: ● Incentive funding ● Fuelling solutions (station, O&M support) ● Maintenance, facility upgrade incentives ● Training, technical support, and

change management FortisBC has a Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) offering, with RNG producing around 90% - 115% reduction in GHG. In 2010 they began injecting RNG into FEI systems, and there are 4 projects in operation, with 3 additional projects currently in progress.

Allan Grant, Vice President Sales, Corvus Energy

Corvus Energy is headquartered in Bergen, Norway, with the North American headquarters in Vancouver. They are a leader in Maritime Energy Storage Solutions (ESS), with 173 installations completed, including 135 vessels and 38 Port Cranes. In 2009, 15 of the world’s largest ships polluted as much as 760 million cars. Maritime transport emits over 1000 million tons of CO2 emissions annually, making up 2.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. These are predicted to steadily increase between 50% and 250% by 2050. NOx, SOx and Particulate Matter (PM) are high in port cities of which 85% are emitted from ships. The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) aims to reduce CO2 emissions by at least 50% by 2050, compared to 2008. Ships energy consumption and CO2 could be reduced by 75% with existing technologies. As a result, London, Singapore, Amersham and Long Beach will require ports to be zero emission by 2035 and ferries in Norway will be required to be fully electric by 2025. The challenge of putting batteries on all ships is the amount of energy required, which would take up a significant amount of storage and cargo space on the vessel to fuel a complete transportation route. It would take 1,898 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) to cross from Shanghai to Vancouver using the Corvus Energy OrcaTM battery system, compared to 36 TEU required for fuelling with heavy oil. Corvus Energy is installing the Orca Energy Storage System (ESS) system in ferries across Norway, saving maintenance costs, fuel consumption, CO2 and NOx. BC Ferries has explored electrifying its fleet. They have approached Corvus and have investigated Scandline LNG hybrid options. Currently, two fully electric vessels are being built for BC Ferries in Romania. Yara Birkeland Norway has been identified as a leader for fully electric ships. Viking Princess is the first hybrid offshore vessel that uses the Corvus Energy Orca ESS. as a result,



maintenance of the vessel has been reduced by 35%-50%, fuel consumption has been reduced by 20%-25%, CO2 emissions has reduced by 20-25% and NOx has been reduced by 20-25%.

Hans Bleeker, Director of Operations, Go99

Half of all containers move on the road. About 57% of these containers travel short distances on drayage trucks. The trucking industry has been pressured to reduce particulate matter and NOx emissions, however this resulted in less engine efficiency. Now the emissions are cleaner, but there are more emissions being produced. Europe has developed a NOx fund, enabling emitters to pay into a cap and trade scheme. BC is home to almost 26,000 trucking companies with close to 40,000 trucks on the road at any given time. Most of these companies are small businesses owned and operated by their drivers. These small businesses contribute to BC’s local economy and have limited capital to invest in fleet upgrades; most trucks are older than 2010. While GHG emissions from passenger vehicles have levelled off, emissions from trucking is trending up.

Many trucks on the road are full one-way but partly empty on the return trip. It is estimated that in Western Canada, 35% of the trucks on the road are empty. Go99 supports the cleaner systems solution by providing a mechanism to make transport more efficient. Deemed the Uber of Trucking, Go99 is a web and mobile app providing access to a Digital Freight-Matching Marketplace, optimizing efficiency and communication by allowing fleet operators to use available space on empty trucks to be utilized. This increases transparency in the industry and eliminates the middle-man. Drivers and trucking operators have visibility into what cargo is available to haul in their area. Drivers bid on cargo and Shippers can see who is hauling and what equipment they have. The goal of Go99 is to have the least number of empty miles possible. Building a clean growth future includes:

● Cleaner vehicles - incentive programs for purchase of ZEV, and working with OEM’s to develop and test ZEV in BC.

● Cleaner fuel - B4 to B20 in 2030; increasing efficiency while keeping costs neutral. ● Cleaner Systems - having the infrastructure in place to limit speed, weight allowance

and ELD.



Canada is ready for such a solution and for innovations across sectors. We are adopting new technologies fast:

● Autonomous vehicles: companies like Suncor have already adopted automated trucks for mining, and we anticipate 11% fully autonomous vehicles by 2025.

● Robotics & Automation: anticipate over $65B market sector by 2025, enjoying 9% growth.

● Blockchain: anticipated to reach full maturity by 2025, impacting almost all aspects of the supply chain.

● Big data analytics: Seeing up to 80% annual growth in collection, processing and offerings.

● Internet of Things (IoT): 35 million connected devices by 2020 and over $3T global annual spending by 2025.

● Drones: over 2.7 million drones to be sold by 2025, up from 150,000 in 2017.

Session 3 Audience Engagement - Questions, Comments and Answers

Charging an EV doubled electricity costs for a Kelowna resident; Fortis needs to stop penalizing electricity use

- The challenge is infrastructure; due to peaks we pay high capacity charges. To level out the load we need time of day pricing.

Electric ferries are a great idea; does the recharge take long? Why not have trucks full of batteries role on and off?

- Batteries on shore, recharge in 8 minutes from battery and grid; stabilizes demand on grid.

- BC Ferries is looking into swapping batteries through port. What about air transportation?

- Zunum, owned by Boeing and Jet Blue, is testing batteries on short-haul planes. - AirBus is also looking at this.

What % of FortisBC is running on RE? What’s on the roadmap?

- Internal mandate is to reach 5% (9 million GJ/year of NG equivalent) by RE. At provincial and federal levels, we are discussing Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS).

- FortisBC studied biomass potential. The current representation is small with limited access to waste. Technology needs to develop to be more commercially feasible ($20/GJ).



What is battery degradation? What is lifespan? - Load curves are modelled, and safety is factored in to size a battery for a specific

lifetime based on how it will be used. Most customers require a 10-year warranty. We see a loss of 0.5% of capacity per year if it sits, or is in an extreme environment (hot, or working excessively).

- Seeing the demand for batteries is going up, and the price of cobalt is increasing because most is currently sourced from Congo and higher priced mines are in the EU and North America.

Session 4: From Pilots to Industry Drivers The last session of Energy Connections 2018 was moderated by Selina Lee-Anderson, Partner at McCarthy Tétrault. This session looked at current initiatives and pilots involving smart vehicles and electric buses in the low carbon transportation space, and looked forward at what’s next.

Tom Hackney, Policy Advisor, BCSEA

An initiative driving sustainability and the subsequent pilots that will be discussed is the goal towards 100% renewable energy (RE) by 2050. 100RE sets a target to achieve rather than carbon to avoid. Some of the policy drivers for 100RE include (i) a top down approach to climate change, including the 2015 Paris agreement, and (ii) setting frameworks for tangible results. Political leadership in the 100RE commitment include: Mayors in Paris through Cities for Climate, GO100RE map, RE100 think tank for companies, 100% RE consulting business. BC Municipalities that have adopted 100RE include Vancouver, Victoria, Saanich, Central Saanich.



Eve Hou, Project Manager, New Mobility, Strategic Planning and Policy, TransLink

One of the largest disruptions was the transition from horse and buggy to the automobile for transportation. Although we did not experience it, we have lived through many other disruptions: the transition from no TVs to more than one TV per household, the microcomputer revolution, and of course, the rise of social media and smartphones. Adoption of game-changing technology is happening faster and faster. We’re expecting to see four transportation technology disruptions

1. Electrification - As the vehicles evolve, ranges are exceeding 300 km per charge and battery prices are dropping quickly, bringing EVs closer to cost parity. EVs have advantages over gasoline cars both to society and to consumers. From a societal standpoint, they produce significantly less carbon emissions, especially in regions such as ours where electricity is predominantly hydro-electric.

2. Connectivity - the ability for things – vehicles, traffic signals, street lights, parking stalls and roadways to connect and exchange data. This has implications for how we plans our infrastructure and operations – for example, city of Toronto is experimenting with traffic signals that adjust based on reading the traffic to optimize traffic flow. Technology is also available to let users pre-book parking stalls or give someone needing assistance more time to cross the street.

3. Sharing - a business model disruption enabled by smart-phones, turning products into services through the sharing economy

4. Automation - this is the least developed disruptor, but with the most potential. In Canada, only Ontario allows public on-road testing of autonomous vehicles, although there are projects testing AVs on private land. The appeal of AVs includes safety and convenience.

All of these disruptions are coming together as Mobility as a Service (MaaS). This is the idea that people will no longer purchase vehicles, but trips. You can pay per trip – a single price that covers all the various modes – or you might be able to subscribe to a mobility package based on their needs and usage patterns, similar to cell phone monthly packages. A number of private sector players are already developing this market – such as MaaS Global – the makers of the Whim, mobility as a service app, which has launched in a number of European cities.



Kelly Carmichael, Research Associate, BCIT

Kelly leads the EV infrastructure projects at BCIT which is focused on solving the numerous challenges of scaling up of infrastructure solutions to be ready for wide adoption of electric vehicles. His latest project was demonstrating the ability to charge electric vehicles using spare capacity in municipal street lights after LED upgrades. LED lights use 1/3 of the electricity conventional streetlights use. If every 1 in 10 lights were replaced with LED it could power one car for a year just on the energy savings. These lights are off during the day but still have electricity capacity, so why not use this capacity to charge EV’s? Experts said it couldn’t be done - so Kelly and BCIT decided to turn it into a research project. After finding out all the ‘whys’ and determining what would need to happen to make it work, Kelly decided to try using street lights in New Westminster for level 2 EV charging. New Westminster didn’t have a lot of street lights that would work; some had cables across the sidewalk, some had lights on poles with power wires, a lot of suitable locations had ‘no parking’ signs in front of them and some street lights were too close to railway tracks. After finding a few suitable street lights, a breaker was added and Flo EV Charging Station in PowerShare Mode was installed at 70-10th Street, Colborn and 8th Street, Carnarvon and 6th Street. Technical challenges faced while conducting this pilot included the need for an electrical certification due to the 2015 Canadian Electric Code (Don Chandler of VEVA pressed for changes to go into the 2018 version); Tech Safety BC didn’t have a variance form to allow for this project - it took 6 months to work through this. Not having parking marked was another challenge. Sometime the full space was not available for EVs and by-laws don’t allow for ‘EV-only’ restrictions on parking spaces. The results would be worth it though - for every 10 streetlights changed to LED, enabled an EV to travel 20 km emission and cost free.



Kristina Mlakar, National Operations Manager Canadian Urban Transit Research & Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC)

There are gaps in research and innovation for transit. CUTRIC fills the need by lobbying governments for support for transit and de-risks transit funding by co-funding PPP. CUTRIC helps transit agencies run workshops and planning sessions with CUTRIC members. CUTRIC’s projects aim to take innovative technologies in the transportation sector from short-term pilots and technology demonstrations, to integrated and permanent parts of our transit fleets so that we can actualize low carbon mobility. CUTRIC conducted an Electric Bus Integration trial, which identified a few challenges: it would take 5 to 6 hours to recharge the bus battery, which means that a transit authority would need to double the number of buses in its fleet. This would make the cost double that of a diesel fuelled bus, with an additional $1.2 million infrastructure cost for each over-head charging system. There are no standards for these over-head charging systems either, risking inability to operate long-term. Because of these challenges TTC and Brampton are trying out hydrogen buses and CUTRIC is piloting Fast-Chargers (See Panel Two). CUTRIC is also looking at the business case and viability of RNG in CNG system. One project involves no changes to active buses; RNG just goes into the grid (notional). The second project identifies environmental & economic cost/benefit of RNG in CNG. The Smart Vehicle Project identifies that autonomous vehicles are on the horizon, which will impact transit. Municipalities must improve shared mobility. Autonomous shuttles are needed for the first and last kilometres. Vancouver to Surrey have jointly bid for autonomous shuttle corridor to UBC as part of the Smart Cities Challenge. Québec has just purchased a shuttle for mixed traffic for bus routes that don’t have bus service. Benefits of connected vehicles and buses include their ability to operate at high speed within inches of each other like train cars. This could alleviate traffic jams and congestion in cities like Vancouver, Surrey, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, York, Kingston, Montreal, etc.

With this great pilots and demonstrations in the works, we have identified that technology isn’t holding us back - regulations and politics are the challenge.



Session 4 Looking Ahead Workshop

The audience was asked to break out into groups and discuss the following question: “Which innovative technology will most radically disrupt transportation system in urban and rural settings?” Some of the discussion topics included the following:

- For Urban: - Autonomous shuttles, on the principle of higher occupancy - Raise solutions that achieve high occupancy: e.g. ride sharing but not with

single person; - Implementation of road pricing - AVs will not solve congestion (half their trips will be empty) - A.C.E.S. (Automation, Connectivity, Electrification, Sharing)

- For Rural: - Electric-rail - Let them keep their SUVs and push biofuels - Connectivity: coordinate transportation - Sharing

Thank you to our Sponsors!

energy connections 2018...vancouver in 1997 the initial plan for vancouver was to prioritise...

Documents