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Commercial and Institutional Consumption of Energy Survey, Summary Report, 2005

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1. Energy Consumption and Energy Intensity in Canada

For the purposes of this survey, the commercial and institutional sector has been defined using categories taken from the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).¹ A complete list of the activity sectors making up the commercial and institutional sector is provided in Appendix A.

Table 1 shows the main survey results for 2005 by activity sector: number of establishments, energy consumption (expressed in gigajoules [GJ]²), floor area (expressed in square metres [m2]) and energy intensity (expressed in gigajoules per square metre [GJ/m2]).

1.1 Number of establishments and floor area

Based on CICES data, there were an estimated 440 863 establishments³ in the commercial and institutional sector in Canada in 2005.4 Offices and non-food retail were the largest categories, accounting for 20 percent and 18 percent of the total estimated number of establishments. Survey data also indicate that commercial and institutional establishments in Canada used over 671 square kilometres (km2) of floor space for productive ends. Elementary and secondary schools accounted for the largest share of floor area, with 17 percent of the total floor area, followed by the office sector, with 15 percent.

1.2 Energy consumption

CICES estimates that commercial and institutional establishments in Canada consumed over 1036 million GJ. This total corresponds to the annual consumption of some 9 million Canadian households, or the equivalent of nearly twice the energy consumption of all private households in Ontario.5

The office sector consumes the greatest amount of energy – 13 percent of total consumption – and has the greatest number of establishments, with 20 percent of the total number of establishments included in the survey. The wholesale and warehousing sector and the elementary and secondary schools sector also consumed significant amounts of energy, with each accounting for 11 percent of total consumption.

Table 1

Number of establishments, energy consumption, floor area and energy intensity
Sector or subsector Number
of
establishments
Energy consumption (GJ) Floor
area
(m2)
Energy intensity (GJ/m2)
Wholesale and warehousing 45,868 A 114,162,037 C 73,462,291 A 1.55 B
Retail trade 97,265 A 146,861,780 A 84,568,645 A 1.74 A
-Non-food retail 80,383 A 110,542,345 B 71,506,001 B 1.55 A
-Food retail 16,881 A 36,319,436 A 13,062,643 A 2.78 A
Information and cultural industries 8,429 A 25,589,044 B 16,822,634 C 1.52 B
Offices (excluding public administration) 86,531 A 139,826,874 C 98,417,673 B 1.42 A
Public administration 6,329 A 35,305,615 A 28,927,539 A 1.22 A
Education¹ 16,512 A 212,807,311 A 158,044,023 B 1.35 A
-Elementary and secondary schools 14,587 A 114,789,224 B 113,207,778 B 1.01 A
-Community colleges and CEGEPs 1,686 A 21,945,276 B 15,488,872 A 1.42 A
-Universities 239 A 76,072,812 A 29,347,374 A 2.59 A
Health care¹ 47,001 A 101,035,185 A 57,596,579 A 1.75 A
-Ambulatory health care services 31,238 A 24,815,948 B 16,925,082 A 1.47 A
-Hospitals 703 A 51,035,328 A 18,061,710 A 2.83 A
-Nursing and residential care facilities 4,649 A 17,976,487 A 13,894,201 A 1.29 A
-Social assistance 10,410 A 7,207,421 A 8,715,586 A 0.83 A
Accommodation services 5,887 A 45,843,413 B 24,391,987 A 1.88 A
Food services and drinking places 37,932 A 42,222,892 A 13,777,378 A 3.06 A
Religious organizations² 24,451 A 50,605,742 B 46,687,141 A 1.08 A
Other³ 64,658 A 122,518,056 B 68,982,813 B 1.78 A
TOTAL 440,863 A 1,036,777,949 A 671,678,701 A 1.54 A

The letter to the right of each estimate indicates its quality, as follows: A – Very good, B – Acceptable, C – Use with caution, F – Too unreliable to be published or eliminated for reasons of confidentiality.

¹ The scopes of certain subsectors within the Education and Health Care sectors were modified from the preceding survey. Refer to the summary report at Appendix B for further details on the methodology.

² Care must be exercised in interpreting data concerning Religious Organizations. See Appendix B for further details on this subject.

³ The residual category Other includes the categories Arts, Entertainment and Recreation (NAICS 71) and Other services excluding public administration (religious organizations not included) (NAICS 81, except 813110).

Due to rounding, the numbers may not add up to the total shown, and some numbers may differ slightly from one table to the next.

Energy consumption by activity sector (%).

1.3 Energy intensity

The CICES 2005 data allowed us to calculate each sector's gross energy consumption and total floor area, which were then used to calculate the energy-intensity ratio. Energy intensity is expressed in gigajoules per square metre (GJ/m2). For the purposes of the CICES, we considered only gross energy intensity, which is the total energy used divided by the total floor area. The average of the intensity of each establishment, used for comparing one establishment with another, is not analysed in this report.

Energy intensity depends on many factors, including the sector of activity, the age of buildings, the type of equipment used, the physical characteristics of buildings, the occupants' habits and behaviour, the type of energy used,6 the hours of operation and the energy-saving measures in place. Although cumulative, each factor affects the establishment's energy intensity independently and in its own complex way. However, this report does not intend to examine these effects individually.7

The overall energy intensity of all commercial and institutional establishments in Canada was 1.54 GJ/m2 for 2005. Chart 2 presents the total energy intensity per activity sector for all establishments.

The social assistance sector is the least energy-intensive, with a ratio of 0.83 GJ/m2. Next are the elementary and secondary school sector (1.01 GJ/m2), the religious organizations sector (1.08 GJ/m2) and the public administration sector (1.22 GJ/m2).

The establishments with the lowest intensity ratios are generally those with more limited operating hours (such as religious organizations), those that rarely open outside normal business hours or those that operate on an irregular or seasonal basis (such as many elementary and secondary schools). These establishments also rarely have energy-intensive equipment, and their space cooling rates are generally lower than average than those for commercial and institutional establishments.

Conversely, the food services and drinking places sector has the most intensive rate, at 3.06 GJ/m2. Hospitals, with a ratio of 2.83 GJ/m2, are also among the more energy-intensive sectors, followed by food retail (2.78 GJ/m2).

The more energy-intensive establishments are most often those that, like hospitals, rely on specialized or sophisticated equipment. Moreover, certain high-intensity establishments, such as hospitals or some food services, have extended business hours.

In the retail trades, food retail establishments (2.78 GJ/m2) are more intensive than other retail establishments (1.55 GJ/m2), due chiefly to the use of high-energy appliances, such as freezers, refrigerators and stoves.

In terms of educational services, universities (2.59 GJ/m2) are more intensive than community colleges and CEGEPs (1.42 GJ/m2). This difference may be due to several factors; namely, the difference in operating hours for each type of establishment or the levels of activity and student enrollment, which are greater for university campuses. To a lesser extent, the differences may also be due to the specific mandates of these two types of institutions: community colleges may focus primarily on teaching, while universities may expend more energy on research.

Total energy intensity by activity sector (GJ/m2).

¹ The only NAICS categories excluded from the survey are Management of Companies and Enterprises (NAICS 55), Administrative and Support, Waste Management and Remediation Services (NAICS 56), Business Schools and Computer and Management Training (NAICS 6114), Technical and Trade Schools (NAICS 6115), Other Schools and Instruction (NAICS 6116) and Educational Support Services (NAICS 6117).

² A GJ is a billion joules. A joule is the amount of energy required to send a one-ampere electric current through a one-ohm resistance for one second. A GJ is equal to 277.8 kilowatt hours (kWh). A million GJ is approximately the amount of energy required to supply the Montréal Metro each year. In 2004, the average Canadian home consumed 114.8 GJ of energy. To convert kWh to GJ, multiply by 0.0036. To convert GJ to kWh, multiply by 277.8.

³ The establishment is the statistical unit used for survey purposes. In the case of colleges and universities, the establishment is the campus. In the case of hospitals, it is the entire set of facilities of the hospital complex. For all other activity sectors, it is the enterprise or institution. An establishment may include more than one building (e.g. a university campus). Conversely, a building may house more than one establishment (e.g. a shopping centre).

4 The number of institutions for 2005 is relatively higher than the number estimated in our previous report (2004). Appendix B summarizes the methods used and details the conceptual reasons for the increased number of eligible units in 2005. One of these reasons is the increased scope of the survey in certain sectors (specifically, community colleges / CEGEPs and universities) and changes in certain admissibility rules.

5 Expressing energy use in terms of number of households involves a calculation using the energy intensity of households (GJ/household) as determined by the Office of Energy Efficiency for 2004 – the most recent year – in the Energy Use Data Handbook, published in August 2006. The number of households is taken from Statistics Canada's 2001 Canadian census.

6 For example, natural gas, fuel oil and heavy fuel oil have a higher intensity than electricity. The energy losses for the fuels are included in the CICES data, while energy losses for electricity are accounted for at the primary level and, accordingly, do not appear in this report. Canadian regions using mainly natural gas (e.g. the Prairies) will therefore tend to present higher levels of energy intensity than those using mainly electricity.

7 Each year, the OEE publishes Energy Efficiency Trends in Canada, the most recent of which spans 1990 to 2004. This publication describes how energy use is affected by the level of activity, weather, structure, level of service and energy efficiency. It is available on the OEE's Web site at oee.nrcan.gc.ca/statistics.

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