SUMMARY

All energy sectors need to be optimised to reach emission reduction goals, Ontario Energy Association says.

By Dale Lunan

The Ontario Energy Association (OEA), which represents the energy industry in Canada’s most populous province, issued a new energy platform on February 28 setting out how best to optimise energy policies that will help achieve net zero aspirations.

Recommendations in the platform focus on five key areas:

  • Comprehensive and coordinated planning,
  • Optimising existing infrastructure,
  • Investing in new infrastructure and technologies,
  • Investing in energy efficiency; and,
  • Achieving behavioural change.

The global energy sector is in the midst of a major transformation driven in part by innovation and growing pressure to meet decarbonisation and net zero targets, the OEA said. As a first priority, Ontario will need to build a comprehensive energy plan – with contributions from government, industry and the public – to understand the best path forward to achieving significant emissions reductions across all energy sectors and uses.

“Businesses and investors need a roadmap to help ensure Ontario consumers are well served during this energy transition and to help Ontario attract the proper investment needed to make it happen,” OEA CEO Vince Brescia said.

The province already has extensive energy infrastructure in place – C$25bn in natural gas distribution, C$29bn in electricity distribution and C$13bn in electricity transmission – that can be leveraged, but new competitive and regulatory processes will need to be implemented to get to net zero, he said.

“Helping to decarbonise our economy in a cost-effective way relies on Ontario's tremendous existing energy infrastructure to provide reliable and sustainable energy choices for Ontario’s homes and businesses.”

In the natural gas sector, the plan recommends setting targets for the blending of renewable natural gas (RNG) into the distribution system, moving away from voluntary adoption of RNG, and the immediate initiation of a carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) pilot project for natural gas generation in the province.