Proposed Rezoning at 11315 128 Street

planning application has been received by the City of Edmonton for a property at 11315 128 Street NW to rezone from Urban Services (US) to Small Scale Infill (RF3). For more detailed information, please refer to the report from Administration. This rezoning will be going before Edmonton City Council June 8th.

To request to speak at Council/Committee Meeting in favour or in opposition, you may register here: The meeting is June 8th, and agenda Item 3.10.

The Inglewood Community League Board has taken a position on this development which can be found in this letter.

Solar Year in Review

Our Solar PV Installation has now passed finished its first full year of production as of Oct 30th 2020 and we are pleased to share the results with the community!

PRODUCTION

Electricity production and consumption is measured in kWh or MWh (1000 kWh = 1 MWh).

Our solar installer estimated our solar PV system would produce 19.1 MWh of electricity per year, whereas we ended up producing 17.7 MWh, about 93% of the estimated total. Most of this difference was over the winter months. Our specific installation has extra snow guards to prevent snow from sliding off into the park. This lead to a build up of snow and ice from November to early March. Stay tuned to a follow article where the impact of this is looked at in more detail. Overall, the system production is performing as expected!

CONSUMPTION

Historically, from 2014 to 2019 the Community League buildings consumed about 18.7 MWh of electricity a year. This year was a year like no other and we consumed only 9.9 MWh this year, a whopping 53% of our historical average.

While COVID was a large contributor, it wasn’t the only one. Our Sustainability Committee and Facilities Committee did a great job reducing electricity usage too. About half the energy savings was from simply turning things off and replacing outside lighting with LEDs! The 47 percentage point decrease is estimated to be broken down as follows:

DescriptionEstimated Electricity SavingsEstimated percent point decrease
Powering off the sports hall500 kWh3%
Reducing parking lot light usage to near zero1000 kWh5%
Replacing outdoor sign and flood lights with LED lighting1000 kWh5%
Turning off electric heater in emergency escape stairwell (March)1500 kWh7.5%
Turning off fridges when not in use1000 kWh5%
Reduced hall usage due to COVID shutdown4400 kWh22%

MONETARY SAVINGS

Now the question you have all been asking: how much money did we save? We ended up saving $2869, with a total electricity bill of $663 credit for the year. This means that at the end of the day we paid nothing, and they actually paid us $663!

The below graph shows in blue what we would have paid without any solar panels. Without solar, our total bill would have been $2205.

In grey is what our electricity bill would look like if we have solar and EPCOR as our electricity retailer paying market rates. Under this, we would have saved $1346, with a total bill of $851.

And in orange is our actual electricity bill using Alberta Cooperative Energy (ACE) as our electricity retailer where we saved $2869. The League switched to ACE at the start of June and was able to take advantage of their microgenerator rates of 22 cents/kWh for the remainder of the summer. This is about triple the EPCOR average over the same time period of 6.6 cents/kwh, and allowed us to more than double our yearly savings!

MONETARY SAVINGS: BREAKDOWN

Now might be a good time review how solar panels impact your electricity bill in this article. The basic idea is that there is a visible impact which shows up as a “MicroGen” credit on your bill, but also a hidden impact.

The Microgen credit is for the excess electricity exported back to the grid. Of the $2869 total we made, $2700 or 94% of that was from Microgen credit.

The hidden impact is the electricity you “self consume”. This is electricity that is produced by your solar panels, and then consumed by lights and appliances in your building without being sold back to the grid. This is electricity you would otherwise have had to import, paying a full 15 cents/kWh for the electricity plus distribution. Our total self consumption for the year was was 1.9 MWh, or 11% of our total production, saving $167. This would have been much higher if our electricity usage had not plummeted at the same time our production went up for the summer.

It should be noted that these types of numbers are not typical, due to our significant reduction in power usage this year. A typical solar PV system is designed to produce 100% of their yearly electricity, with self consumption sitting at about 50% or higher. Our friends at the Westmount Community League have a solar PV system the same size as ours and had higher electricity usage over the same period, saving $917 due to self consumption.

CONCLUSION

At the conclusion to our first year, the solar panels are operating exactly as expected. We’ve produced nearly as much electricity as predicted, and earned more revenue than expected. This extra revenue is money that would otherwise have come out of our AGLC Casino funds. These funds are earmarked for our phase two park redevelopment project.

Special thanks to our solar installer Generate Energy for executing the project, providing an exceptional level of customer service and technical expertise! Also thanks to the MCCAC for partially funding the project, and the EFCL Green Leagues program for resources and support to help us get the project off the ground.

Now that we have a full year of data behind us we have a series of articles being planned, including: How much production loss did the snow guard cause? How much production loss does our chimney cause to the panels beside and behind it? All this, and we haven’t even touched on the GHG emissions reduction, which are an entire topic in an of themselves. Stay tuned!

President’s Message – Fall 2020

Hello Residents of Inglewood,

I am very pleased to share with you that the League is busy preparing to safely reopen our facility to residents for rental activity this September. New rules and procedures will be in place to help ensure the safety of those using the hall. If you are interested in renting the facility, please visit our webpage at: https://inglewoodcl.com/hall-rental/ for more information.

Despite the many challenges posed by the current pandemic, the League’s Board of Directors and volunteers have done their best to find new ways to connect more residents, encourage increased participation in League activities, and share vital community information through our various channels. Here are the highlights from the last six months of League events and activities:

  • Covid-19 Outreach Initiative that involved food hampers, book exchange, friendly phoners, and grocery / prescription pick-up; 
  • a Covid modified community clean-up;
  • a virtual block party, book club, yoga program, and volunteer session; and
  • a Covid modified Outdoor Soccer program in conjunction with the community of Grovenor. 

It has been my pleasure to work with the current Board of Directors who continued to work on these and other activities over this trying period. As a result, we increased membership, regularly distributed e-newsletters, and had a dedicated team monitoring our facility and grounds. An enormous thank you to all the volunteers for the many hours they dedicated to the League’s various activities, initiatives, and projects.

Looking ahead, I want to encourage residents to join us for two more important events: Community League Day on Saturday, September 19th and the Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Saturday, October 3rd. For AGM, there are some additional safety measures needed and so we are asking residents to help us by registering for this year’s event. Details for both events can be found in this e-newsletter.

A quick update on phase 2 of the Neighbourhood Renewal project in Inglewood.  The City advises that construction on phase 2 is on schedule.  Weather dependent, you will see the City continuing to landscape with backfill topsoil and sod until the end of September.  Construction for this year will be finishing up before snowfall around October / November.  Please visit the City’s website for further Neighbourhood Renewal information. A reminder for those living in the areas included in phase 3 – the final phase – of the project that work will begin next spring (2021).  The finished areas of our neighbourhood are looking fantastic!  With only one more year of construction to go, Inglewood’s roads, sidewalks, and lights will be fit to serve our residents for the next 30 years or more.

Finally, serving as President over the past two years has been an incredibly rewarding experience. My deepest thanks to the membership for providing me the opportunity to hold this office. I look forward to next serving as your Past President on the Board of Directors and working with a new President and Board in the upcoming term.  Thank you all for your time and support over the years. 

All the best,

Reetu Schaaf

President

Inglewood Community League

Linear Park Draft Design

As part of Inglewood’s neighbourhood renewal, Linear Park will also be renewed starting in 2021. The City of Edmonton is proposing enhancements to improve the usage, beauty and safety of Linear Park.

The Building Great Neighbourhoods project team members would like your feedback on the Draft Design for Linear Park.

Please review the Draft Design for Linear Park and Take the Survey by September 29. Your input will be used to improve the shared-use path in Linear Park.

EMSA’s INDOOR SOCCER REGISTRATION SYSTEM IS NOW OPEN!

Registration for EMSA’s Indoor Soccer Program is now underway! All registration and payment for this program is handled online through Edmonton Minor Soccer Association at: emsasoccerportal.com. For more information on the indoor program (fees, playing dates, age groups, etc.) visit the website: https://emsawest.com/season-info/indoor-soccer/. Registration for this program ends September 27th, 2020.