SARAH WILLIAMS

STAFF WRITER

A clean tech company located in Picton has been awarded a $500,000 contract to help manage energy costs for buildings owned and leased by the Department of Public Works and Government Services – Ontario Region.

With this contract comes the promise of an influx of high-skilled jobs along with a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Screaming Power announced their new grant alongside stakeholders and Bay of Quinte MP Neil Ellis at the Grange Winery Wednesday.

Having a tall order to fill, the clean tech company took the opportunity to explain the product and solutions they will provide.

“Energy is a very difficult to understand, but at the same time we all have buildings that we live and work in, but we know very little about them,” said CEO Gary Michor.

“We know more about our cell phones and the activity on them than we do about our largest assets,” he added, referring to the buildings that could benefit from energy saving efforts.

The contract, generated by the Built in Canada Innovation Program (BCIP) is awarded to Canadian tech start-ups with the goal of stimulating innovation and strengthening the country’s middle-class.

The contract underlines how the Bay of Quinte is leading a rural renaissance underway across Eastern Ontario as federal investments in innovation prepare local communities for the economy of the future and create good jobs that attract skilled workers and allow youth to stay close to home and get quality employment opportunities.

To this end, Ellis believes having high-tech jobs in the County will add value to an already strong economy.

“Having high-tech jobs just tells you how good the economy is here. With high-tech jobs, there is good pay,” said Ellis, adding, “To build our economy on high-tech jobs is the way of the future.”

Creating good quality local jobs is a top priority and investments like this are helping more Canadians join the middle class, stated Ellis.

According to their press release, Michor is “looking to use data to solve energy and emissions problems. The solution uses a mobile device and cloud infrastructure to manage large amounts of data regarding energy use, the building, local weather and overall Green House Gas (GHG) emissions.”

“We can use the data we collect to identify the impact of green initiatives and new opportunities, particularly for large organizations with hundreds of thousands of buildings – saving them a lot of time and money,” stated Michor.

The data is analyzed by a machine-learning algorithm that supports real-time decision making. The solution automates the processes required for GHG reporting on buildings and more accurately tracks energy savings against customer-defined benchmarks to support conservation activities and Continuous Energy Improvement programs.

Built by Canadian programmers, analysts, and energy experts, Screaming Power Inc., is growing at a steady pace, doubling the number of its employees since 2015. Michor expects to triple the number of its current employees by 2022.

“This is a game changer for the Bay of Quinte region. BCIP has made Screaming Power’s success possible and that will give them the opportunity to grow into a large local employer. Youth graduates from STEM disciplines will be able to find rewarding careers in the growing energy industry, right here in the Bay of Quinte,” said Trevor Brookes, social finance specialist with Community Futures of Prince Edward Lennox Addington.

If Screaming Power can provide the middle class jobs they profess to be able to, perhaps reducing greenhouse gas emissions and energy costs are not the only problems they will be able to solve.

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