2024 BC Building Electrification Scorecard

2024 proved to be a tenacious year for building electrification in BC. While pro-electrification champions continued their great work on building decarbonization, detractors were also out in full force. For better or for worse, building electrification was a fiery topic. 

The attached scorecard evaluates progress happening throughout the province toward the implementation of the BC Building Electrification Road Map (BERM).

Read the 2024 BERM Scorecard 

These additional 2024 highlights are worth noting: 

New Construction 

New construction in Vancouver prioritizes electrification 

• In July of 2024, a Vancouver city council member brought forward a motion to reintroduce gas for space and hot water heating in new construction in Vancouver. Supporters of the previous policy, including local builders, showed up to the vote in record numbers. Ultimately, the motion failed. Instead, the city strengthened its position on climate, ensuring that new buildings continue to use electricity as their primary energy source. 

Zero Carbon Step Code continues to forge ahead 

• Thirty-two communities in BC have adopted the Zero Carbon Step Code (ZCSC) policy. A majority of the communities that have passed the ZCSC require at least EL-3 which addresses 99% of the residential sources of carbon pollution. Together these communities represent about 46% of province’s annual housing starts.  

• At the close of 2024, an amendment was made to the BC Building Code that will require all new buildings, effective March 10, 2025, to comply with at least EL-1 of the ZCSC. This means that applicable buildings following the performance path will be required to measure and disclose operational greenhouse gas emissions.  

• BC Housing published a Design Guide for Domestic Hot Water Heat Pumps in New MURBs to support engineers, design teams and contractors in the design and installation of DHW heat pump systems in new MURBs and support the decarbonization of these systems. 

Safe indoor temperature regulations 

• The 2024 update to the BC Building Code also promotes the use of active cooling, by introducing a maximum design temperature limit to reduce the risk to health and safety from overheating. Maintaining a safe temperature in a living space can involve a combination of mechanical cooling systems (such as HRVs and heat pumps) and passive design measures (such as window orientation and shading). 

• Vancouver Coastal Health released a report in early 2024 from the Chief Medical Health Officer bringing together multiple sources of data and analyses to describe the impacts of climate change on population health. The report finds that “Climate change exacerbates existing health inequities created by differences in income, living and working conditions, or social support networks”. The report addresses safe indoor temperatures and recommends heat pumps as one of several strategies to mitigate overheating risks.  

Existing Buildings 

Rebates tailored to income 

• Launched this year, the CleanBC Better Homes Energy Savings Program offers enhanced rebates to make energy-saving home upgrades more affordable. Rebate amounts are tied to household income and valued at up to 100% of the home upgrade cost. Rebates are available for heat pumps, insulation, windows, electrical service upgrades and more. 

Avoiding electrical service upgrades 

• BC Housing published the Homeowner’s Guide to Electrical Load Management to support homeowners looking to electrify. The guide addresses the misconception that an electrical service upgrade is needed for all electrification retrofits, and help homeowners with strategies to improve energy efficiency. 

• B2E published a resource that analyses the potential of avoiding electrical service upgrades through load management in multi-family buildings. Produced by FRESCo Building Efficiency, this report recommends strategies to minimize electrical requirements while adding heat pumps to suites.  

Multi-family retrofit incentives 

• New to the market in September, BC Hydro and CleanBC launched a Multi-Unit Residential Building Retrofit Program for apartments and condos. This is the first rebate stream to focus on multi-family housing with support for whole building retrofits including offers for assessments, studies and rebates. 

BC Retrofit Accelerator is launched! 

• The Zero Emissions Innovation Centre (ZEIC) launched the BC Retrofit Accelerator (BCRA), a three-year $20 million program aimed at kick-starting climate and energy upgrades across hundreds of the province’s commercial and residential buildings. BCRA will provide hands-on guidance to the owners and managers of larger commercial and residential properties—including strata-owned, rental, non-market, and off-reserve Indigenous housing. Under the BCRA, the following programs were launched or expanded to support retrofit planning and support services: 

  • LandlordBC’s Rental Apartment Retrofit Accelerator, initially funded by the City of Vancouver and CleanBC in 2023, has  expanded its reach to the entire province. 

  • Strata building owners are also being supported through the new Strata Energy Advisor program. 

  • BOMA BC is supporting commercial building owners through the new Decarb Accelerator Program 

  • The BC Non-Profit Housing Association’s NRRG program and Aboriginal Housing Management Association’s services have expanded to include building decarbonization. Both are program partners of the BCRA. 

Energize Vancouver results for Year 1 

• Energize Vancouver is an energy and carbon reporting program for large commercial and multi-family buildings with a goal to cut emissions from these buildings by 50% by 2030 and 100% by 2050. Year 1 of the program had great results with 91% reporting, and 84% of buildings already in compliance with the 2026 greenhouse gas intensity (GHGi) limit. 

Commercial retrofit best practices established 

• After two years of hard work, intensive stakeholder engagement and collaboration, the B2E Commercial Building Electrification Guide was published. This comprehensive guide is written for engineering designers and provides a step-wise process for them to follow when undertaking electrification retrofits.  

Other Highlights 

Focus on the health impacts of cooking with gas 

• Research on natural gas stoves in Vancouver, finds that samples from homes participating in the study contain up to 50 times more toxic benzene than other North American cities. Switching to electric cooking, such as induction cooktops and ranges, can alleviate the risks associated with toxin exposure and potential for gas explosions. 

• A B2E campaign focused on electrification of kitchens, Induction Eats, was launched in the spring. The popular campaign featured professional chefs, a cookbook, giveaway contest, and live event to raise awareness of the benefits of Induction Cooking. 

More power is coming... 

• To support increasing load growth from electrification, BC Hydro announced that it will seek to secure power purchase agreements with nine wind and one solar project that together will provide nearly 5,000 gigawatt hours per year of clean electricity, boosting current supply by 8%. Eight of the successful projects will have 51% First Nations equity ownership. The projects are spread across nearly every region in the province and are expected to generate between $5 billion and $6 billion in private capital investment.  

• On the transmission and distribution side of its business, BC Hydro announced that it will spend $36 billion over ten years to expand and upgrade its electricity distribution system. This represents a twofold increase over its previous capital plan to support the electrification of the province and to reinforce its system to enable customer connection and meet load growth.   

Partial electrification, a small win? 

• FortisBC, the province’s main gas provider, is no longer able to incentivize conventional gas equipment. They are, however, able to incentivize dual-fuel equipment which includes a heat pump as their first stage of heating. This type of system makes the most sense in very cold climates or in leaky homes that do not want to undertake envelope improvements. Homes in milder climates are generally very well suited for all-electric systems. These new dual-fuel incentives are driving partial electrification in many buildings. This small win is somewhat overshadowed by program requirements that may not be serving customers to receive optimal performance. Contractors that use a switchover temperature of 5oC instead of choosing an optimal performance-based temperature may end up costing consumers more money and more emissions to operate their systems. Cold climate heat pump models are readily available and can operate down to -30C. 

• Some electric heat pump contractors in the B2E network are finding the current incentive levels provided by the gas industry for dual-fuel systems are rendering all-electric retrofit solutions uncompetitive with current CleanBC rebate amounts, which makes the case for electric heat pumps more challenging. 

Potential setbacks 

• A significant policy setback was the Metro Vancouver Board’s decision to not support a staff recommendation to seek public consultation on similar reporting and emissions requirements for large buildings that exist in Vancouver. The lack of regional coordination leaves other municipalities, like the City of Richmond, to forge ahead on their own.  

• The Provincial Government announced that it will scrap the Provincial Carbon Tax if the Federal Government rescinds its national carbon tax requirements (something which looks increasingly likely). While it is difficult to project how this may affect consumers, it may become more challenging to convince homeowners and businesses to switch from fossil fuels to electrification and for the provincial and local governments to achieve their reduction targets.   

Coming in 2025... 

• CleanBC and BC Hydro are working on new multi-family rebates that will support individual suites, in addition to whole building retrofit offers already available. 

• Energize Vancouver Year 2 will capture even more buildings in their emissions and carbon reporting program. Commercial buildings 50,000 square feet or greater, plus residential buildings and hotels 100,000 square feet or greater will now be reporting. 

• Rising tariff threats bring uncertainty to the supply chain. While impacts to building electrification technology supply chain are relatively unknown, there are risks of rising costs for US-manufactured equipment.  

• District energy systems are decarbonizing through electrification. Three district energy projects are expected to complete in 2025, including Vancouver’s downtown core systems, Thompson River University’s campus in Kamloops, and the new Sen̓áḵw development in Vancouver.  

• New air-to-water and apartment-sized heat pump technologies are making their way into BC’s market. This coming year, at least two new residential air-to-water heat pumps will be launched to replace existing boiler systems that serve radiant floors and domestic hot water. In addition, at least one manufacturer will be bringing a window-saddle heat pump to market to serve the needs of smaller households in apartments and condos. 

• BC Hydro’s application to the BC Utilities Commission to amend its distribution extension policy was approved and will be effective as of July 5, 2025. Changes to interconnection tariff charges are expected to lower the cost of connections for many customers, speed up connection timelines, and better balance cost sharing. It will also make connection costs more predictable for many customers looking to increase their electrical service capacity. The BCUC also delivered a decision on a 2024 rate design which will provide an option to flatten out the currently tiered residential electricity rates. A decision on the application to increase net metering is still pending. 

• On January 1, 2025, Canada phased out of refrigerants with a global warming potential (GWP) > 750. Manufacturers will no longer be permitted to produce new heat pumps with these refrigerants such as the widely used R410a. For the most part, these are being replaced by refrigerants with moderate GWPs (such as R-32 and R454B).  

Areas where more focus is needed 

• B2E members are hoping to see renewed attention on the development of the point of sale and point of installation standards for the Highest Efficiency Equipment Standards (HEES) for existing buildings. Ideally, the HEES will be put into regulation this coming year with a 2030 start date and the ability for local governments to adopt early.      

• A workforce analysis undertaken by the Home Performance Stakeholder Council estimates that by 2030, the qualified residential heat pump installer workforce will need to increase by over 65%. This number does not include additional qualified workers to maintain residential heat pumps or install and maintain commercial heat pumps in the province. BC needs an action plan to attract, retain, and upskill today’s workforce to meet these future needs. 

• Training requirements and a qualified database of heat pump installers for the multi-family sector is needed, similar to the Home Performance Contractor Network program that already exists for single-family homes. 

• Bringing down the capital and installation costs of electrified equipment continues to be an area that needs work.  

• A wider supply of equipment options and a skilled workforce with expertise in heat pump installations will continue to be a priority for supporting home and building owners to make the switch to electrified heating and cooling systems. 

• While the refrigerant transition is happening in North America, other jurisdictions are much further ahead with low GWP refrigerants such as propane, which has a 20-year GWP of 0.072. In Canada, small amounts of propane refrigerants can be used, but codes and standards enabling higher volumes will need to be enabled for this newer technology to be imported into the market. B2E’s Heat Pump Working Group is working on this file. 

• Hybrid electric/gas systems are being installed across BC. Ensuring that these systems are properly commissioned is a priority for B2E’s Technical committee. Education on right-sizing systems and switchover temperatures in residential applications will be critical to mitigate the risks of overusing gas, minimizing operational costs and emitting more greenhouse gas emissions than necessary. 

• On the topic of hybrid systems, B2E’s Technical committee is also interested in increasing industry knowledge and developing best practices on the appropriate applications for hybrid systems (eg. Cold climates, or buildings with electrical capacity constraints).   

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