The last three years have seen utility-scale energy storage systems proliferate in Canada like never before. A recent white paper published by Energy Storage Canada, the nation’s leading industry organisation for all things energy storage, concluded that anywhere between 8,000 MW to 12,000 MW of energy storage potential would optimally support the net-zero transition of the Canadian electricity supply mix by 2035. In addition to helping jurisdictions meet their net-zero goals, energy storage is key to increasing grid reliability, efficiency and resiliency.
In Canada, which is a federation, the ten provinces have constitutional jurisdiction over energy that is within their respective borders. As the industrial revolution took hold, the provinces put in place Crown corporations to manage the provinces’ respective electricity grids. In British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, the Crown continues to own the provincial vertically integrated utility, meaning that transmission, most distribution, and generation are centrally managed, with some involvement of independent power producers. This allows provincial governments to execute on provincial energy policy expeditiously in ways that legislative authority cannot. While the degree of control exerted by the provincial government with a vertically integrated Crown corporation is almost absolute, provinces with an open market also continue to exert a high degree of control over the energy sector as a manner of provincial policy.
Ontario
Ontario is Canada’s most populous province with more than one third of the country’s population. The province has approximately 38,193 MW of installed capacity,[1] with summer peaks that range from 21,000 MW to a historical high of 27,005 MW.[2] In Ontario, the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) is responsible for managing the electricity sector. The IESO delivers key services including managing the power system in real-time, planning for the province’s future energy needs and enabling conservation. The IESO takes direction from the Minister of Energy, which is generally issued by way of letter.
After at least a decade of surplus energy and relatively flat demand, the IESO now predicts a steady average increase of net energy demand of two per cent year-on-year, culminating in a 208 TWh demand in 2043, for a total increase of 60 TWh and summer peaks forecast to reach 31,500 MW.[3] Driven by electrification of certain sectors of the economy, increased economic activity, population growth and the retirement and refurbishment of Ontario’s nuclear facilities, which provide more than half of Ontario’s baseload power, the IESO predicts a capacity shortfall in the mid-2020s.