Toronto: The Independent Electricity System Operator’s latest 18-Month Outlook report, released June 21, forecasts adequate generation and transmission to supply Ontario’s electricity demand over the next 18 months to December, 2017. Long-term forecasts also indicate that Ontario will remain adequately supplied into the foreseeable future.
The report, published quarterly by the IESO, predicts that growth in demand from economic expansion and population increase are expected to be offset by the impacts of conservation and embedded generation.
“Local generation, along with increased conservation and demand response, will continue to have a downward impact on demand, despite population and economic growth,” said Kim Warren, IESO’s Vice–President of Market and System Operations, and Chief Operating Officer. “This is a continuation of the underlying trend we’ve seen for some time.”
About 1,150 megawatts of new supply – 650 MW of wind, 300 MW of gas, 100 MW of hydroelectric and 100 MW of solar generation – are expected to be added to the province’s transmission grid over the Outlook period. By the end of the period, the amount of grid-connected wind and solar generation is expected to increase to about 4,500 MW and 380 MW, respectively. The embedded wind generation over the same period is expected to increase to about 700 MW. Meanwhile, embedded solar generation is expected to increase to more than 2,000 MW.