I agree with the sentiment…

I agree with the sentiment of the LTEP; it is incumbent upon the Ministry of Energy to look past any government's short-term (~4 year) view, and instead have a long-term plan.

A major long-term necessity is the societal reduction of its impact on the environment.  Most pressing is the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  In the 1980s, Ontario was able to significantly reduce acid rain production by implementing scrubbers in its coal plants.  With the refurbishment and restart of 2 OPG reactors and 4 Bruce Power reactors since 2003, Ontario's electrical system weaned itself off coal completely by 2014, and reduced its use of natural gas from the 2011 peak.

Nuclear power generation dates back to the first Canadian nuclear-generated electricity in June 1962; nuclear-generated production began to rise rapidly in 1971, with the start of the first Pickering reactor.  Ontario's successful home-designed and built reactors have delivered ~2,670 TWh to the grid to the end of 2015, equivalent to about 17 years of the total 2015 Ontario net electrical production.  Had that amount of electricity been produced by coal (its most-likely alternative), it would have added another 2.9 billion tonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere, to say nothing of the releases of NOx and SOx, and the enormous piles of fly ash.  In 2016, I predict Ontario's reactors will deliver another ~90 TWh of emissions-free electricity.  For the past dozen years, Ontario's reactor fleet has had a capacity factor of 79%.

Thanks to the vision of nuclear pioneers and the support of government this accomplishment was achieved; the initial developments of sixty years ago (with continuous supportive R&D to this day) are bearing fruit because of good long-term planning.  Ontario needs to continue to support nuclear power development, beyond the current slate of refurbishments (as valuable as they are).

Now that we have a much cleaner electricity generating system, thanks primarily to hydro and nuclear, we need to use electricity better to reduce other greenhouse gas emissions.  The main candidate area is transportation - supporting the electrification of railways (including enlarged public transportation systems) and road vehicles.

With the application of "smart grid" technologies, charging electric vehicles could help damp the grid oscillations, caused primarily by capricious wind generation.  Over the past years, Ontario's industrial wind production has had an average capacity factor of 29.9% (with significant variance), a number which demonstrates its variability.  Industrial-scale solar power has less data, but has an average capacity factor of 19.4% with less variability than wind (the diurnal cycle is predictable).  While both solar and wind have their parts to play in the grid, they have limited roles which have more than likely reached saturation (particularly wind).

Ontario is well placed to continue to develop a lower-emission environment, thanks to its large grid and the contributions of nuclear and hydro in particular.  The current healthy state of electrical generation is the product of good planning and foresight from decades ago.

[Original Comment ID: 205358]