Andrea Pastori   Cabinet…

Andrea Pastori

 

Cabinet Liaison and Strategic Policy Coordinator

 

Ministry of Energy

 

Strategic, Network and Agency Policy Division

 

Strategic Policy and Analytics Branch

 

77 Grenville Street

 

Floor 6th

 

Toronto Ontario

 

M7A 2C1

 

Phone: (416) 327-7276

 

Thursday December 15th, 2016

 

The following comments are submitted on behalf of Sinopa Energy Inc.

 

Distribution and Grid Modernization

 

What are the significant challenges facing utilities and what can government do to meet them?

 

1.The legacy grid inadequacies increase for meeting the evolving energy needs in Ontario.  - The viability of the century old, legacy bulk power grid has been declining, and will continue at an accelerating rate. The bulk power grid is wearing out, where depreciation exceeds new investment. New investment is not keeping up with grid deterioration because:

 

a.Legislative and regulatory barriers based upon environmental and sustainability concerns constrain, even prevent, the siting, construction and operation of new grid facilities,

 

b.The cost of new generation, transmission and distribution plant is increasing and any

 

significant new construction means higher rates to consumers in the increasing competitive environment, and

 

c.Utilities face significant risk of not recovering all their costs, or an adequate return, for

 

new infrastructure investment,

 

d.Climate issues further threaten grid adequacy.  Aside from the disputed linkage of climate

 

change and utilities’ carbon-based fuels usage; the number, duration and severity of weather events have had steady growth.  The adverse effect on grid reliability is undeniable, even if the ultimate causes may be disputed,

 

e.Distribution system failures cause more customer service outages than bulk power grid failures. The declining adequacy of the bulk power grid makes this worse, but perfect bulk power grid reliability does not result in perfect distribution grid reliability. Increased distribution grid reliability required, as it will be essential in the digital future.

 

2.Growing competition with the legacy grid – Electricity costs are increasing, reliability decreases, and sustainability is becoming a more important issue.  All this issues together drives the customers to seek alternatives to legacy grid service.  Electric utilities help sensitize customers to their energy usage and alternatives with program such as demand response and critical peak pricing.  Originally these programs were intended to change customers’ behaviors to prolong the viability of the grid. However, customers have not truly been motivated to change their behavior to help their electric utility remain viable. Instead, they have greater interest in the more convenient, and effective ways towards obtaining, managing, and using electric energy for their own life, business, and financial objectives.

 

There is a limit of convenience that customers are willing to concede for demand reduction.  A balance between convenience and demand reduction is key during times when customers want to use electricity the most. Customers tend to reduce their consumption during times that utilities want energy purchasing.

 

Customers are finding other alternatives on their side of the meter, notably distributed generation: conventional backup generators, rooftop solar arrays, combined heat and power facilities, including microgrids. The ways that customers utilize and manage their electric energy is changing with the advent of electric vehicles, battery storage, smart homes / buildings, etc.

 

Ontario should consider allowing customers to shop for, and purchase, energy in competitive retail markets.  Enabling customers to purchase and sell electric energy in transactive energy markets.

 

3.Distributed generation, storage and management – Large electricity generators are centrally dispatched for delivering power over transmission lines to load centers and distributed through electric utilities meters to customers.  This centralized, one-way model is being turned on its head by distributed generation, storage and management.

 

The penetration of distributed energy is growing, and the policies and procedures from the electric utilities to the Ontario Energy Board need to catch up, allowing distributed energy to show its true benefits.  Provincial wide standard interconnections from delta Y grounding of appliances to meter grounding issues vary between electric utilities.  This need to become a provincial standard to allow for simple distribution grid interconnections to take place.

 

4.New disruptive enabling technologies - A rapidly growing array of new energy, electronics, information, and telecommunications technology devices and applications are entering the market. Their cost to performance is steadily increasing, meaning their prices steadily drop while the value steadily rises. This hastens the obsolescence of traditional generation, transmission, distribution, sales, management and utilization of electricity. Each has reached their peak in value while steadily rising in cost.

 

New technologies are doing more than revolutionizing the grid from the edges inward. They make it possible to meet the existing challenges, and new opportunities they afford. Utilities must stay abreast of what they are, what they do, and how they can be best utilized to plan, operate, and manage their increasingly complex and challenging business.

 

5.Change & complexity - The relatively simple, vertically-integrated, centrally monitored, and controlled monopoly paradigm is on its way out. In its place a new decentralized model is emerging, involving a greater number of components. Systems will be owned and operated independently by customers for their own benefit. They will be small, intermittent, and surely random. These system’s primary operation will not be maintaining the reliability and efficiency of the legacy grid.

 

Consider the growing number of electric vehicles, which represent roaming energy consumption, each with comparable demand of a residence. Combined with smart technologies, (fridge, stove, thermostats) this will fractionalize the Ontario electric energy business that opposes today’s Ontario central monitoring and control grid. Ontario electric utilities need to consider new methods of retrieving, analyzing and operating electric distribution systems in the presence of probabilistic, rather than deterministic, variables. More independent moving parts will require a true smart distribution grid, not labelled “smart” meters and time of use pricing schemes.  The new grid will be real-time, requiring greater bandwidth in comparison to today’s grid.  Real-time data must be instantaneously retrieved, analyzed and acted upon.

 

6.Cost & revenue - Costs of generation, transmission and distribution are all increasing, therefore the costs of doing business is increasing.  Meanwhile the electric utility revenues are decreasing because of conservation, energy efficiency, distributed generation and competition. The typical reaction for the electric utility would be to raise rates, ensuring recovery of costs, and incentivizing customers to find alternatives.  Cost cutting measures are taken either by reducing staff or maintenance practices, both increasing degradation of equipment.

 

Traditional cost of service and rate design approaches are no longer sufficient. The objective cannot be ensuring cost recovery with a reasonable profit. No other business benefits from this type of assurance. They must provide products and services at a price consistent with the value that customers perceive in comparison to competing offerings. Occasionally that price will be will above cost, and occasionally below. Electric utilities should be required to sell products and services based on what the customers will pay, as with normal competitive markets. Meanwhile, through best business practices, improve on maintaining financial viability of the enterprise.

 

7.Telecommunications - The profusion and complexity of the new grid will require the monitoring, analysis and automation of distribution lines and devices and of the new grid components. It will not be possible to accomplish this through closed proprietary silos of devices, communications systems, databases, and applications. The new grid will require complex integration and enhanced operability. Every device, application, and communications channel must interoperate effortlessly with each other. An open network design needs to be set as the new grid’s standard.

 

8.Workforce - The workforce challenge is threefold. First, the longtime stability of the electric utility industry has enabled longevity of employment unparalleled in most other businesses. Thus, utilities find themselves with an aging workforce that has begun to rapidly dissipate. The retiring workers carry decades of institutional knowledge and expertise. This leaves utilities with the challenge of reaching, recruiting, training, and retaining new employees.

 

Concurrently, as described above, utilities need new expertise and experience to deal with new complexities and components of the grid. This means new types of employees, increasing information and communication technology capabilities than ever before.

 

A new work force is emerging. It is essential to rethink the recruitment and management of electrical utility staff.   Finally, with the scope and depth of change that the industry faces, the industry greatly needs their new reasoning, skills, and methods.

 

What are the most important benefits of a modern grid?  Increased reliability? Greater information on your energy usage?

 

The modern grid has many benefits.  Firstly, it overhauls aging equipment.  The current electrical system is decades old and dependent upon equipment approaching the end of its usable life. Smart grid approach will update this infrastructure, ensuring that safety standards continue, power is delivered, and the system is managed efficiently.

 

The modern grid will equip the grid to meet increasing demand, and changing usage.  Today, people use more electronic devices, and the demand for power continues to grow. The grid system is currently strained in many areas of Ontario. Without smart grid improvements, the grid system will be unable to meet the challenges of the near future.

 

The modern grid has the potential to decrease the risk of brownouts, blackouts, and surges. Brownouts and power surges can leave damaged TVs, audio equipment, and computers in their wake. Smart grid applications smooth the flow of power, and when aberrations do occur, they are quickly and easily dealt with on the system.

 

The smart grid gives you control over your electricity bill, with the potential to lower your energy costs.  From an end-user’s perspective, it is possible to monitor and adjust your energy usage through smart meters and home energy management systems offering 24/7 rate and usage readings. Meaning you can schedule your energy-intensive tasks to low-demand periods when energy costs are lower.

 

From the electric utility perspective, when an issue occurs in the electrical system, a utility worker must drive to the location and collect data before a solution can be determined.  The modern grid improvements can instantaneously convert system events into retrievable information, where problem solving can begin in the control room.

 

The current grid relies on standby generation plants to meet peak energy consumption.  Standby generation plants sit idle for most times, with the rare exception during critical demand periods. Smart grids allow direct communication with end-user equipment, reducing consumption during peak periods, and lowering the need for costly standby power plants.

 

A modern grid allows the implementation of electric vehicles in a shorter time frame.  When electric car owners plug in to charge their electric vehicles, the modern grid will be ready to manage that demand.

 

Robust modern grid systems are needed to strategically manage diverse, and geographically scattered, renewable power sources like wind farms, solar plants, and hydro stations. The modern grid will ensure this type of energy is stored safely and distributed as needed.

 

One of the most important aspects of the modern grid is allowing Ontario to remain competitive in a global market.  Our electric grid once gave us a competitive advantage, and now it’s causing us to fall behind. A modern grid safeguards Ontario’s position at the forefront of the transition toward a clean energy future.

 

What additional policies should the government consider to expand access to natural gas?

 

The Minister of Energy should direct the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) to develop a Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) standard for natural gas utilities operating in Ontario.  The OEB should set a renewable standard for natural gas utilities with reasonable increases over time.  For example; the standard starts at 2% of the specific utility supply for 2017. Incrementing by 2% for the next 10 years, reaching a 20% goal by the year 2027.  This approach would provide the predictability and certainty that is required for participants in a new RNG market.  In addition, the OEB should set a standard 20-year contract term for the RNG contracts.  This will provide certainty for lenders and investors, promoting such projects and supporting their development.

 

The Minister of Energy should develop a program like the IESO FIT program for industrial end-users that could create RNG from existing processes, for self-consumption or injection into a natural gas utility in proximity of the facility.

 

Microgrids

 

What are the best uses of microgrids in Ontario?

 

Microgrids are localized grids that can disconnect from the traditional grid and operate autonomously. Microgrids can operate while the main grid is down, can strengthen grid resilience, help mitigate grid disturbances, and function as a grid resource for faster system response and recovery.

 

Microgrids support a flexible and efficient electric grid by enabling the integration of growing deployments for distributed energy resources like solar and wind. Additionally, using local sources of energy to serve local loads help reduce energy loss in transmission and distribution, increasing efficiency of the electric delivery system.

 

Preparing for growth in Ontario’s electricity usage, microgrids are a favorable compliment to the centralized grid’s legacy equipment. There would be no reason to preclude the possibility of various microgrids coexisting within a given Independent System Operators (ISO) grid. Various designs might be appropriate for different requirements and opportunities. Depending on the design of the microgrid, it can provide various benefits, such as:

 

Stability - The control approaches based on appropriate droop in frequency and voltage at the terminals of each of the devices in a microgrid can allow the entire network to operate in a stable manner during nominal operating conditions and during transient events.

 

Compatibility - Microgrids compliment and participate as a functional unit within the existing centralized legacy grid, where expansion has inhibited. This combination ensures no stranded assets, and utilizing resources to their design capacity for their planned lifetime.

 

Flexibility - The rate of expansion and growth of microgrids does not need precise forecasting. Adding devices as the need arises and presuming they are compatible with operating protocols, with neighboring microgrid(s), or with the “grid”, as appropriate. Microgrids should be technology neutral and accommodate diverse sources such as solar, wind, conventional fossil fuel, storage devices, and end-use equipment.

 

Scalability - Expanding existing microgrids, or establishing new microgrids, will meet future growth needs.  This allows for many small devices to operate together in a parallel and modular manner and scale to higher power levels.  Typically, installing smaller devices need less permitting and shorter lead time.

 

Efficiency - Energy management layers can be accommodated within the framework to allow for concerns such as operating efficiency, environmental emissions, heat harvest, etc., to be optimized in a systematic manner.

 

Economics - The droop control technique allows for behavioral properties in response to costs, and market signals can be programmed into the operating protocol of the microgrid. The technical conceptualization does not dictate any particular pricing, market, or settlement mechanism within the microgrid, or in the transactions with the “grid”.

 

Peer-to-Peer Model - This paradigm requires adopting a true peer-to-peer model for operation and control of the microgrid and its interactive energy transactions with the centralized utility grid. The conceptualization does not dictate the size, scale, number of peers, or the growth rate.

 

Are there any barriers preventing the use of microgrids?

 

Standby Charges - A common contentious issue concerns standby charges. Typically, levying these on any installed on-site generation of a connected customer, where generation is for more than emergency use. Logically, standby charges assert that infrastructure must be in place to serve the site’s load in the event of its self-generating capacity being unavailable, and the site should pay this cost. This would occur if the on-site capabilities have shut down; e.g., for maintenance, because economics dictate, or because of equipment failure. With such a circumstance, the “grid” will serve the site’s full load, and one can argue that the cost of establishing and maintaining capacity for this purpose must fall on the site. Generator and utility debates over such charges in Ontario has been acrimonious. If capital expenditure collection occurred in volumetric charges for electricity sales, truthfully, a self-generator will avoid the burden of these costs. On the other hand, using these facilities by the site might be rare, which case they are serving other customers at that time.  Consideration of utility costs deemed close enough to the customer, and only usable to serve the customer, should be charged in one demand charge. More versatile assets further away are available on a contract basis to the customer. Note that this problem could be eliminated if charging customers an energy-only real-time electricity market price. In this case, including the high capital cost recovery required for peak time deliveries in the price of electricity. If the microgrid purchased during such times, e.g., in the event of equipment failure, would it be responsible for significant capital cost recovery, and there would be a clear, strong incentive for it to avoid such costly purchases. Further, creating correct incentives would be for equipment sizing and operation.

 

Interconnection - One of the most contentious issues that will arise for microgrids is interconnection. Absent clear provincial standard rules, utilities can discourage interconnection for generation they do not control. The regulatory environment makes this probable, if, for example, lost revenues directly affect the utility’s bottom line. Ontario must implement interconnection rules that dramatically lower this barrier and its associated costs. For example, Ontario could follow California and implement “Rule 21” as an approach to stem the potential abuse by utilities. Adopting IEEE 1547.4 in Ontario is a prerequisite for Ontario microgrid development.

 

Transmission

 

How can Ontario continue to strengthen reliability of the transmission system in all regions of the province?

 

Maintenance and installation for new transmission structures is an area for improvement.  Adopting new developing transmission technologies with a focus on lowering installation costs, maintenance costs, environment foot print, visual pollution, and an overall increased lifetime for structures and equipment.  Additionally, with Ontario’s climate, ensuring due diligence with preventative maintenance will save costs in the long term.

 

The interconnection between nodes is restricting assistance with load during peak hours.  This congestion is causing greater wear on the equipment than necessary.  Implementing a microgrid strategy can reduce congestion during peak hours.  The smaller scale distribution grids will pull congestion away from the main grid.

 

Moving forward with smart grid development and deployments is Ontario’s best approach to strengthen transmission system reliability in all regions.  Transforming the provinces current electric grid into a more intelligent, “smart” system involves deploying numerous advanced technologies that address areas such as outage management, voltage optimization and demand response to improve reliability, resiliency and security of the grid.  While modernizing, the provincial grid is a complex task that will take years to complete.

 

While the increased digitization of a smarter grid brings numerous benefits, it introduces additional risks from cyber-attacks. Security for the provinces electric grid is of critical importance. Developing a rigorous, comprehensive cybersecurity approach for all the “Smart Grid” projects is required.

 

Is the current “user pay” model an effective way to meet Ontario’s needs? Does it appropriately balance the goals of economic development and protecting taxpayers?

 

Retail rate design must reflect the structure of wholesale power costs.  Even in the post-transition period, utilities will likely still be required to offer tariffs for customers who choose not to switch to alternative suppliers, such as competitive power marketers. Given the highly-differentiated nature of wholesale power costs, retail rate design and cost recovery mechanisms must reflect the nature of how these costs are incurred by the utility in the competitive wholesale marketplace.  This synchronization of wholesale and retail rate design should also address the potential over/under revenue recovery operating risk that distribution utilities with continuing energy service obligations face because of wholesale market price volatility.

 

Usage-based volumetric rates should not be overemphasized.  Current rate designs, which usually overemphasize usage-based volumetric rates, will tend to encourage uneconomic bypass because customers can avoid paying their appropriate share of a utility’s fixed costs for distribution by using alternative sources of power or using less energy.  This could cause an increased burden on the remaining utility customers. Volumetric rates create artificial incentives to bypass the local distribution system, especially if the customer can return to regulated service at will.

 

Utility rates must reflect both the utility’s economic costs and demand-related considerations. Cost and demand-responsive rate designs, such as time-of-day rates, seasonal rates, or even real time rates (possibly offered to end users by intermediaries providing hedges against volatility) would be ways to accomplish this.  In addition, demand response programs that result in voluntary load reductions at peak periods can be used at the utility level to improve the functioning of wholesale markets.

 

Retail tariff rates should contain separate demand, energy, and customer charges.  Larger commercial and industrial customers can be priced using separate demand, energy, and customer charges.  Use of this rate design with smaller residential and commercial customers is more difficult given the cost of new metering and meter reading expenses.  As the costs of metering and related technologies fall, more rate structure options will be possible.  The real challenge over the longer term, however, will be political acceptability.

 

To the greatest extent possible, customer or demand-related fixed costs should not be rolled into energy charges.  The end-use customer often sees too high a price for energy and too low a price for demand and customer charges.  Hence, the customer never receives the economically efficient price signal for either one.  Moreover, where fixed distribution costs are recovered through usage-sensitive rates, distribution utility cost recovery may be threatened by changes in prices and usage.

 

Time-of-use, interruptible, and seasonal rates are preferred rate designs.  For larger commercial and industrial customers, these rate designs are an important way to improve demand response and thereby increase the efficiency of power supply procurement by the utility or other provider.  As metering costs decrease over time, these rate options can be extended to other classes.

 

Customer education relating to the need for rate restructuring must be given a high priority. Customers must be informed about the rationale for rate design changes.

 

Will Ontario’s pipeline principles protect the best interests of Ontarians and allow for informed participation in the National Energy Board’s review of the Energy East project? What considerations should be taken into account?

 

Ontario should consider including the following principles to protect the best interests of Ontario:

 

1.Successful completion of the environmental review process.;

 

2.The pipeline(s) must provide a world-leading practices for environmentally sensitive land spill response, prevention and recovery systems to manage and mitigate the risks and costs of pipelines;

 

3.World-leading practices for land/stream and water spill prevention, response and recovery

 

systems to manage and mitigate the risks and costs of pipelines;

 

4.Addressing legal requirements regarding aboriginal and treaty rights, and providing First

 

Nations with the opportunities, information and resources necessary to participate in, and benefit from, a heavy oil project where the project crosses treaty lands; and,

 

5.Ontario receives a fair share of fiscal and economic benefits for proposed pipeline projects

 

that reflects the level, degree and nature of risk borne by the province, the environment, and citizens.

 

Storage

 

Would you be willing to participate in a program where your utility could use your home storage device from time to time to operate a more reliable electricity distribution system?

 

The simply answer would be it depends.  It would depend on the requirements, capital investment, rates, and risk ownership for technology failures such as premature battery failure.  The service provider needs to replace the unit, remove the old unit, and maintain connections, at no cost, if a battery has a premature failure. If the customer bared no risk in participating and is not impacted by such factors as increased insurance for their house, or building ventilation systems etc., the option is beneficial.

 

What role do you foresee for natural gas to supplement and complement the province’s existing electricity storage options?

 

Natural gas will play a significant role as a transitional fuel for Ontario to effectively, and efficiently, reach a sustainable energy market.  Natural gas employed as a cost efficient transitional fuel will allow Ontario to effectively progress to a sustainable energy market earlier than without its inclusion in the solution.  Natural gas operates on a daily market, while electricity in Ontario operates on an hourly, or 5-minute clearing price.  Therefore, this is an opportunity to leverage natural gas to supplement electricity storage which will benefit Ontario. In applications, such as microgrid, combined heat and power plants can operate at times of high electricity demand.  At times where the grid can provide the required energy, the combined heat and power plants are switched off.  A futuristic approach would be to use electricity in times of low demands to create hydrogen and inject it into the natural gas system, within appropriate quality limits and extract fuel mixture to fire a peaking plant or other energy generating device at appropriate times.  This approach provides an effective solution to electricity storage while greening the natural gas in the distribution system.

 

How can Ontario further support innovative energy storage technologies that leverage our existing natural gas infrastructure assets and take advantage of our clean electricity system?

 

Ontario can support both research and project capital funding for embedding innovative natural gas “greening” technologies in an electrical distribution system, and near demand.  Cleaning or greening natural gas will be costly; therefore, Ontario needs to take a long-term approach to greening the natural gas system.  This is possible with supporting the electrical system through the provisions of 20-year Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) supply contracts at a premium rate.  This encourages the development of RNG that can be used in electrical peaking solutions, which keeps Ontario clean and green.

 

Innovative and Economic Growth

 

Which innovations offer the greatest benefit to your community and the energy system as a whole?

 

The smart grid combined with Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) offers the best benefit to the system. The smart grid allows for the control of energy usage and cost, while RNG allows for the use of existing natural gas infrastructure and appliances.  The combination of the two will allow Ontario to remain competitive in the global market.

 

How should the public and private sectors cooperate to encourage innovation in the energy section?

 

A reduction of red tape, regulations and processes to allow private sectors access to energy systems needs to occur.  Barriers to innovation exist from current regulation models, used for both electricity and natural gas utilities, that do not promote cooperation for innovation.  Removal of such barriers will be one key step needed.

 

What actions could the government take to support the adoption of alternative fuels?

 

The Ontario government could increase the ethical fuel additive level in gasoline from the current 10% to a higher level such as 15% or 20%.

 

For microgeneration technologies, the government could offer home owners or small business a tax credit for the purchase and installation of specified alternative fuel technologies.

 

Regarding alternative fuels such as Renewable Natural Gas (RNG), the government could direct the Ontario Energy Board to make a renewable standard for natural gas utilities.  For example, natural gas utilities must purchase a percentage of Ontario created RNG supply.

 

The government could offer a Feed-in Tariff like contract for industrial companies that could create RNG, thereby displacing their own load or sell to the natural gas utility.

 

Promotion and research into how Ontario can leverage its forestry and create RNG to displace natural gas.

 

Conservation and Energy Efficiency

 

Should Ontario set provincial conservation targets for other fuel types such as natural gas, oil and propane?

 

Yes, conservation targets should be set for natural gas, oil and propane on an annual base.  These could reflect a similar approach taken in Ontario with electricity conservation targets.

 

To meet the province’s climate change objectives, how can existing or new conservation and energy efficiency programs be enhanced in the near and longer term?

 

Enhancing Conservation and Demand Management (CDM) programs for near and long term by creating a better incentive program for specified industries. Typically, if the incentives are insufficient from a financial perspective, industry will not take the opportunity to investigate energy efficiency opportunities. This would interfere or complicate their production process or product quality.  Once an industry participant has undertaken one or a few energy efficiency projects they are likely to do other efficiency projects.

 

Many industries do not have time to complete the forms and submissions required to obtain funding for energy efficiency programs.  The government could offer financial incentive for paying consultants to complete the required applications and communications, allowing a higher pick up rate on energy efficiency programs.

 

How can we continue to inform and engage energy consumers?

 

The best approach is with simplicity.  Many residential energy consumers wish to have predicable energy prices, invoices and information.  Segregation of invoicing items or billing items adds confusion to many consumers.  Education on cause and effect is vital to gain a behavioral change required to reduce the cost of energy.  Simple programs that require the involvement of local utilities with customers to simplify the process for residential and small commercial customer to undertake programs.  Energy saving tips on the weather network when it is cool or hot can be beneficial.  Local radio announcements can also work with the same premise.

 

Clean Energy Supply

 

What role should distributed renewable energy generation play in the ongoing modernization and transformation of Ontario’s electricity system?

 

A wide variety of renewable energy generation exists in Ontario today.  Solar and wind are the most common, however as these are non-dispatchable and they serve as a supplement to the grid.  Battery assisted non-dispatchable renewable energy technologies can provide dispatchable benefits, but many battery technologies are environmentally unfriendly and this can put the government on the wrong side of the environment issue.  Renewables that can be dispatchable, such as biomass or hydro, can provide both baseload or peaking supplies.  The government needs to better develop the biomass and small hydro developments to leverage these opportunities. The end state of the modernization and transformation of Ontario’s electricity system should have a 100% renewable energy generation target.

 

Northern remote communities experience unreliable fuel-based energy generation, specifically during the winter months.  Developing microgrids for participating remote communities is a high priority. Reducing their fuel oil dependency for energy generation is a necessary step in modernizing Ontario’s electricity system. This drives a reduction on fuel transportation and energy generation to northern communities, and alleviates rural community energy issues.  A biomass solution would create jobs while maintaining the reliability of a baseload generator.

 

What strategies should Ontario pursue to harness the potential of its nuclear sector to meet its future energy needs?

 

Nuclear is powerful and clean, but non-renewable and not a sustainable energy source.  Ontario’s projected expenditures on refurbishing units in both nuclear plants, Darlington and Bruce, needs to consider from a life cycle approach.  Ontario needs research funding to find solutions for nuclear product waste, be it renewable/reusable waste, or a significant reduction in waste. This search should not be in perpetuity, but given a realistic finite timeframe, to find a solution to its waste issue.

 

What factors should Ontario focus on as it pursues opportunities for electricity trade agreements with nearby provinces and states?

 

Ontario needs an energy policy, not electricity policy.  Consideration on solving the electric issues may be alternative fuels/energy types.  Reduce the myopia electricity and look outside of electricity to solve some of the issues.

 

Several key elements for focus on agreements with nearby provinces and states are:

 

1.Renewable energy as primary focus

 

2.Reliability or supportive energy both from a cost and reliability perspective

 

3.Distance, closer to Ontario is preferable

 

4.A buy/sell arrangement where routing excess from Ontario through other provinces within favourable terms.

 

5.A detailed energy policy

 

Regional Planning

 

In areas expected to undergo a transformation from rural to suburban, through intense development, how could the province help to ensure that corridor lands are reserved/set-aside before development occurs to minimize the potential costs and inconvenience of acquiring and clearing developed lands in the future?

 

Community energy plans for individual towns and cities should be the primary identification of utility corridors.  Towns and cities have regular utility coordination meetings; therefore, the utilities should communicate and discuss necessary requirements.  The community energy plan should inform the municipalities 5-year plan that is filed with the Ontario government for approval. Ontario can now review the adjacent municipality plans to ensure a complete coordinated effort for the utilities.

 

In the regional planning, consideration should be given to divide the Northwest Ontario region into two regions.  The new region is the “Thunder Bay” region, comprising of the Thunder Bay District and carrying an estimated 145,000 population.  The “Northwest Ontario” region would consist of the remaining Kenora District, and Rainy River District — estimated at 79,000 population.  A similar division exists between the Sudbury/Algoma and North/East of Sudbury regions.

 

By implement this approach greater data accuracy for the new Northwest Ontario region’s status and interests, providing Ontario opportunity to foresee, prevent, and solve issues.  Many of the communities in the new Northwest Ontario region would be indigenous, rural, remote and non-urban communities.  The magnitude of including urban areas such as Thunder Bay obscures the potential options, considerations and approaches to consider for the non-urban areas.

 

Indigenous Energy Policy

 

What are the best tools to support Indigenous community engagement and leadership in Ontario’s energy sector?

 

Ensure indigenous communities have the capacity to participate in the energy sector.  Providing resources for all levels of indigenous communities to approach for consultation.  Providing the communities opportunity to operate electric distribution systems within their communities, if they wish, or to create their own distribution and generation companies to serve their communities.

 

Consideration for treating indigenous and non-indigenous communities as a municipality may be beneficial in advancing community engagement.  Similar treatment will support the communities to set structures and take benefits from the energy sector as would any municipality.  Access to knowledge through a central certification program for indigenous communities for selecting service providers may also benefit.

 

Supply Mix

 

To meet a higher demand, what mix of new electricity resources would best balance the principles of cost-effectiveness, reliability, clean energy, community engagement, and an emphasis on Conservation First?

 

Microgrid, microgeneration, and net zero communities would benefit as these principles are highly adaptable.  These solutions would work in high growth urban areas where energy could be a challenge to serve the residents.  Battery technologies are beneficial; however, the hazardous wastes and life cycle of the battery will create a non-renewable energy grid.  Higher focus on biomass in regions where a remote communities or small rural communities can create jobs and energy would be a benefit both environmentally and economically.

 

Adjusting the supply mix to increase biomass and biogas energy generation will reduce the ecological footprint for the long term.  Biofuel based energy generators can be used as both baseload and mid-merit generation.

 

The renewable, expandable, and sustainable aspects will provide economic benefits for the communities of northern Ontario, and sustainability for economic development.

 

What policies will Ontario need to adapt to a transformation in the fuels sector?

 

Ontario needs to increase renewable and sustainable fuels with a reasonable cost considered approach.  This approach should not disadvantage industry, residents, and the environment. Implementation of a set determined evolution should be clearly set for the long term to provide clear direct to the market.  A reasonable increase in sustainable and renewable fuels should reflect in the Ontario fuel sector.

 

[Original Comment ID: 206960]