REAL - Power Down Your Power Bills

The Rideau Environmental Action League has been delivering workshops throughout Lanark County on energy saving, natural landscaping and other topics for 19 years from its base in Smiths Falls. Between mid-January and early March 2007, REAL teamed up with OHCC to offer a series of 8 workshops to increase understanding among the general public of renewable energy systems and ways to reduce use of electricity.

According to Sue Brandum (1), REAL's Executive Director, the impetus for the workshop series was the availability of funding from the Ontario Ministry of Energy's Community Conservation Initiatives Program. The OHCC provided staff to help plan, promote and deliver the workshops. REAL also received support from Hydro One, which sent employees to speak knowledgably on the topics of Smart Meters and Net Metering.

Two workshops were offered in each of Smiths Falls, Perth, Lanark and Almonte. In each case, one workshop presented information on Net Metering and renewable energy options, while the other dealt with general electricity conservation. Each workshop featured at least one expert speaker, while general conservation information was provided by project staff.

The original expectation for the workshops was that they would reach a total of approximately 200 people. In fact, they were so popular that 722 people attended. The four workshops on solar power, wind power and Net Metering attracted 531 people; while the other four workshops on electricity conservation and Smart Meters were attended by 191 people. People came from far and wide, in some cases driving over an hour to attend the workshops. So great was the demand that some of the halls booked for the workshops were over-full and on one occasion they actually had to turn 25 people away.

For Sue Brandum, this reflects what she has been seeing in the current high level of interest in environmental and energy conservation issues. The interest was apparent from the first workshop in Perth. She said, "It was a brutally cold and windy night, and people were lined up outside, waiting to come in."

The high level of public interest impressed Dave Watts, Communications Manager for the Smart Meter Project of Hydro One (2), who participated in two of the early workshops. For Hydro One, the workshops offered an opportunity to test their own public information presentations with regard to Smart Meters and time-of-use rates. Although these energy-saving measures are not yet in place in Lanark County, Mr. Watts thought that the workshops will have a positive effect when Smart Meters are introduced (planned for 2008).

At the workshops, more than 3,600 pamphlets and information brochures about energy conservation and renewable energy production were taken by participants. Workshop organizers believed that people were more likely to adopt energy conservation behaviour if they had the means readily available, so people who attended the workshops were also able to take away energy saving items, such as compact fluorescent light bulbs, pipe wrap kits, faucet aerators and water-saving shower heads.

Sue Brandum noted that the workshops on alternative energy were extremely popular. "A strong motivation for people was getting disconnected from Hydro One. But the message of the workshops was that it is a lot harder and more expensive than people expected." She said the workshops' key message was that "the first step is conservation, whether you want to get off the grid or not. Then, there are many interim and economic steps without going completely off the grid. I think people came away with a realistic sense of what renewable energy is and what they can do."

The educational function of the conservation workshops was crucial, in her view. Even though messages about using less energy have been increasingly prevalent, many people seemed to need the specific impetus of the workshops to make commitments to reduce their own energy use. Although REAL has not yet been able to do so, they intend to evaluate the actual effectiveness of the workshops by calling participants to see if they have taken steps to reduce energy use in their own homes. This will also help REAL to plan follow-up activities to build on the enthusiasm generated by the workshops.

The workshop series was promoted and supported by a series of 26 paid advertisements placed in 10 local and regional papers. One large advertisement was placed before the start of the workshop series, listing the dates and places for all the workshops. This gave people an opportunity to plan attendance, so that if they could not make it to the workshop in their home community they might be able to attend another workshop somewhere else. One or two advertisements were placed in local newspapers for each workshop just before it was due to take place.

Sue Brandum is convinced that a key reason for the high turnouts to all the workshops was the intensive advertising. One of the ways the organizers tracked the effectiveness of advertising was to ask people to bring the advertisement with them to the workshop in order to receive one of the gift items (although gift items were offered to all in attendance whether they brought an advertisement or not).

For Dave Watts of Hydro One, a key element in the success of the workshops in attracting as much attention as they did was the fact that they were organized and promoted by an organization based in the community, rather than by an outside institution such as Hydro One. REAL's presence in and commitment to the local communities meant that they had the credibility and contacts to catch people's interest and get them involved.

(1) Interview with Sue Brandum, conducted on May 11, 2007. Other information comes from the report prepared by REAL, Power Down Your Power Bills, undated, and the Replicability Report, also undated..
(2) Interview with Dave Watts, conducted on May 22, 2007.