Transitions toward Clean and Reliable Power Systems. A Case Study from Ontario, Canada.

Ontario has extreme weather-related peak demand conditions in both summer and winter, and natural gas supplies about 10% of flexible energy to the power grid, as well as winter heating. It was the first jurisdiction in North America to completely eliminate coal power generation, and it went through a significant and rapid energy transition as a result.

Ontario’s coal closure policy required the province to replace a quarter of its generation capacity in under a decade, and that was a major test of the already stressed electricity security of supply and reliability. Using a phased approach to taking coal stations out of service, Ontario replaced them with a mix of renewables, natural gas, and nuclear resources.

The transition was not a simple one, but the result is a clean and reliable electricity system, with impactful conservation policies and innovative market instruments, such as Demand Response auctions.

Published on March 4, 2021 Download PDF (699 KB)