List of Recommendations…

List of Recommendations

Governance recommendations
Recommendation ES-1: The energy planning framework should mitigate government risks by ensuring transparency and accountability in the processes and roles.
Recommendation ES-2: Ontario needs a transparent, accountable and effective long-term energy planning framework to develop reliable and affordable energy infrastructure.
Recommendation ES-5: Using an IESO “Living Plan” approach, supported by the OEB’s participation and annual reporting against the Government’s Policy Priorities could require minimal change to existing roles, create negligible burden to planning timelines, and provide the accountability required to bolster the process.

Policy priority recommendations
Recommendation ES-4: Policy Priorities should establish goals and objectives for such areas as: total cost to ratepayers; emission reductions; job creation; GDP; energy security; and other government policy objectives such as roles for indigenous peoples.
Recommendation P1: Planners require a clear mandate to independently identify and explore emerging risks and their implications for Ontario’s energy system and government established Policy Priorities.
Recommendation P2: Policy Priorities must recognize that climate action is driving an indisputable and significant need for electrification that must be included in Ontario’s energy plan.
Recommendation P3: Policy Priorities should recognize the need for integrated planning across electricity, natural gas, hydrogen and biomass economies as emerging technology innovations could affect the need for capacity buildout.
Recommendation P4: Sustaining system reliability through the energy transition warrants planning now for the future.
• Recommendation P4-1: Long-term procurement planning should place a policy priority on acquiring non-emitting resources.
• Recommendation P4-2: Policy Priorities should consider carbon pricing under the EPS be applied to natural gas fired generation in a manner similar to the OBPS, including any future contractual arrangements with existing assets that arise from IESOs resource acquisition strategy.
• Recommendation P4-3: System planning should be based on a strategically-driven timeline to 2050 in order to minimize the system reliability risks of a capacity shortfall.
Recommendation P5: A new resource acquisition planning framework should prioritize a “low system cost” approach while concurrently addressing the evolving nature of demand, including regional needs.
• Recommendation P5-1: Planning for new resource acquisitions must consider the cost implications and benefits of integrated bulk, regional, and local solutions.
Recommendation P6: Optimizing the economic benefits of leveraging infrastructure investments should be included in Policy Priorities and applied to the IESO’s procurement process.
• Recommendation P6-1: The energy planning framework should consider using infrastructure development tools for public-private partnerships to minimize and share costs and risks in new low carbon infrastructure like nuclear generation.
Recommendation ES-3: Government should provide clear, transparent, non-prescriptive Policy Priorities than can be planned for and are sufficiently measurable to support accountability.

Implementation Recommendations
Recommendation ES-6: Procurements for low emission baseload should start now.
Recommendation I1 – Ontario should not be unnecessarily exposed to the risk of having inadequate electricity resources as it should not take the IESO four years to prepare a procurement process.
Recommendation I2 – Specifying Ontario’s demand needs—baseload and intermediate—is the solution that allows the province to act both early and prudently to satisfy its future energy requirements.
Recommendation I3 – The IESO should create near-term dates to kick start the paradigm shift for procuring Ontario’s energy needs by 2022.