GRANTS · HYDRO-QUÉBEC
Hydro-Québec rebates — up to $3M per project on electric efficiency
The Buildings program subsidizes measures that cut electricity consumption on commercial and institutional sites. Two paths — Simplified (OSE tool, prescriptive) and Customized (baseline vs efficient scenario, up to $3M). Energy conversion away from electricity is not in scope.
- Up to $0M
- Per projectHydro-Québec's Efficient Solutions — Customized Option pays up to $3M per project on eligible electric-efficiency measures.
- 0¢
- Per kWh savedFirst of the three values used to calculate the Customized grant — the program pays the lowest of the three.
- 0%
- Of eligible cost (existing)Existing buildings: 75% of the energy-efficiency premium. New builds: 15% of total project cost.
Two ways to qualify
Efficient Solutions — Simplified or Customized
Hydro-Québec's Buildings program runs two parallel routes. Most measures fit one or the other; some projects file both.
Efficient Solutions — Simplified Option
Hydro-Québec's prescriptive route. A wide range of the most common energy-efficiency measures qualify; the subsidy is calculated using the OSE tool — Hydro-Québec's software for prescriptive measure calculations across commercial, institutional, and industrial buildings.
Efficient Solutions — Customized Option
Engineered measurement-and-verification route. Eligible savings equal the difference between a baseline scenario and the proposed efficient scenario, measured or calculated over one year. Existing buildings use the equipment in place as baseline; new builds use Hydro-Québec-approved standard equipment.
How the Customized grant is calculated
The grant equals the lowest of three values — capped at $3M
For the Customized Option, Hydro-Québec computes three amounts and pays whichever is smallest. This is the math we engineer the project to optimize.
15¢ per kWh saved
First value — fifteen cents per kilowatt-hour saved over the one-year measurement period, baseline vs efficient scenario.
75% / 15% of project cost
Second value — 75% of the energy-efficiency premium on existing buildings, or 15% of total project cost on new builds.
1-year simple payback floor
Third value — the amount that brings the project's simple payback to one year. The grant equals the lowest of these three values.
Capped at $3M per project
Across all three calculation paths, the Customized Option pays a maximum of $3 million per project.
Eligibility
What's eligible — and what's explicitly not
The Buildings program funds electric-efficiency measures on commercial and institutional sites. It does not fund switching electric load onto another fuel.
Eligible — commercial and institutional buildings
Measures that reduce the electricity consumption of a building or group of buildings — heat pumps, controls, motors, lighting, envelope, and efficient HVAC equipment. Eligible on the commercial and institutional markets.
Not eligible — energy conversion
Hydro-Québec's Buildings program does not subsidize energy-conversion measures — for example, switching from electricity to natural gas. Conversion projects route through Énergir or ÉcoPerformance instead.
How we work
Four steps from eligibility to one-year reporting
Eligibility review
Free check against the Buildings program — Simplified or Customized — based on your fuel mix, building type, and project scope.
Grant-optimized design
We engineer eligible measures into the design — and structure the baseline-vs-efficient scenario so the M&V holds up at filing.
Application management
OSE-tool filings for Simplified projects, full baseline-vs-efficient submissions for Customized — our Energy division handles both.
Performance reporting
One-year measurement against baseline, reported in the format Hydro-Québec requires for Customized payouts.
Hydro-Québec FAQ
What our clients ask before filing
Who qualifies for the Hydro-Québec Buildings program?
Commercial and institutional sites — office towers, retail, multi-residential portfolios, hospitals, schools, universities, archives, government buildings. The OSE tool that drives the Simplified Option also covers measures applicable to the industrial sector; industrial-only projects that don't fit the Buildings program typically route through ÉcoPerformance. The program does not apply to single-family residential buildings. Eligible measures include heat pumps, controls, motors, lighting, envelope upgrades, and efficient HVAC equipment.
Why doesn't Hydro-Québec subsidize switching from electricity to natural gas?
Hydro-Québec's Buildings program is structured to reduce electricity consumption — not to fund moving load off the electric grid. Energy conversion away from electricity (for example, replacing electric heat with natural gas) is explicitly excluded. If conversion is part of the strategy, Énergir's programs and ÉcoPerformance cover the fossil-fuel side, and we stack the applications accordingly.
Simplified vs Customized — which option fits our project?
Simplified runs on prescriptive measures filed through the OSE tool — fastest path when the measures match the catalog (lighting, motors, controls, common HVAC upgrades). Customized runs on a baseline-vs-efficient measurement-and-verification path over one year — required for projects with engineering complexity, novel measures, or savings that don't fit the OSE catalog. Customized is also where the $3M/project cap and 15¢/kWh rules apply.
How is the Customized grant actually calculated?
Three values are computed, and Hydro-Québec pays the lowest of them: (1) 15¢ per kWh saved over the one-year measurement period; (2) 75% of the eligible cost of energy-saving measures for existing buildings, or 15% of total project cost for new builds; (3) the amount that brings simple payback to one year. The total is capped at $3 million per project.
Can Hydro-Québec rebates be stacked with Énergir and ÉcoPerformance?
Yes. Multiple energy-optimization grants can apply to the same project. ÉcoPerformance caps total public funding at 75% of eligible cost from all sources combined, so the application stack has to be structured to maximize that envelope. Hydro-Québec rebates cover the electric-efficiency side, Énergir covers natural-gas measures, and ÉcoPerformance covers the GHG-reduction layer — they fit together when filed coherently.
What does our Energy division handle on a Hydro-Québec application?
End-to-end. Eligibility review, Simplified vs Customized routing, OSE-tool filings on prescriptive measures, baseline-vs-efficient scenario engineering and submission on Customized, and the one-year measurement-and-verification reporting Hydro-Québec requires for Customized payouts. The client provides building access, utility-bill history, and approvals.
Grant eligibility
Check your project's grant eligibility
Tell us about your building and the measures you are considering. A Kolostat grant specialist will identify the applicable program and next steps.
Get started
Find out what your building qualifies for
Download the grant guide for the math on past projects financed through Quebec grant programs — then talk to our Energy division about yours.