Under direction from the Minister of Energy, the Ontario Power Authority has established a set of incentives to encourage community-based power projects, both to prioritize them in the queue of applicants, and to provide them with a payment incentive:
• By Ministerial Directive of June 12, 2013, the Ontario Power Authority is to procure 150 MW of renewable power under the small FIT program, plus 50 MW under the microFIT, for of the next four years, starting in 2014. For the rest of 2013, the OPA is to launch a second procurement window in the fall, for 70 MW under small FIT, plus any capacity unfilled from the first window that closed on January 18. Also, another microFIT window will open with a procurement target of 30 MW in fall 2013.
Setasides for community power
• Out of that annual 150 MW for small FIT, 25 MW are assigned as Contract Capacity Set Asides (CCSA) for power projects with >50% community ownership. This means ownership by a cooperative, with at least 50 members who are property owners in the municipality in which the project is located. Another 25 MW are set aside for projects with >50% equity participation from Aboriginal communities.
• Applicants have to designate their project as applying for a setaside, even if they qualify under the above definition.
Access to advance queue positions, outside the setaside
• The OPA evaluates all applications, first for completeness and to confirm eligibility requirements are met, and then to see if there is room for them on the wires (the TAT / DAT test). Projects qualifying for the setaside get evaluated first, according to timestamp. Once the setaside allocation is filled, any more that would have qualified are assessed alongside other applications based on their priority points.
• Priority points are assigned to all projects, according to the rules table below. Those with the most points are highest on the list. All projects must have at least one point. Projects with the same number of points are ranked by timestamp.
Price adders for community projects
• Projects with >50% equity interest under the Community heading, receive a 1.0 cent per kWh premium. Projects with equity interest between 15% and 50% receive a 0.5 cent per kWh premium. (Those premiums do not apply to roof-top solar projects or microFIT). The comparable adders for Aboriginal equity participation are 1.5 cents and 0.75 cents.
Prioritization table
| Applicant Type
| Points
|
| A project in which a municipality or public sector entity (publicly funded schools, public colleges, public universities, hospitals, publicly-owned long-term care honmes, public transit services and Metrolinx) has a minimum 15% equity interest | 3 |
| A project in which a local community has a minimum15% equity interest held by a co-op with 35 or more property owners who live in the municipality where the project is located | 3 |
| A project in which an Aborignal community has a minimum 15% equity interest | 3
|
| Other applicants | 0 |
| Additional points |
|
| Local Municipal Council Support Resolution | 2 |
| Aboriginal Community Support Resolution | 2 |
| A project in which a municipality or public sector entity are a project host | 2 |
| System benefit (water and bioenergy) | 1 |
— from the appendix to the June 12, 2013 Ministerial Directive
Notes:
• Priority between projects that have an equal number of points is determined based on each project’s timestamp.
• Any contract requires at least 1 prioritization point
• Municipality is defined as a municipal corporation.
• A project can only obtain points as one applicant type. I.e., a single project cannot be eligible for more than 3 points under the applicant type category.