On November 28, the IESO outlined its plan to prepare and use a new tool for managing change: An Innovation Roadmap. The purpose of the roadmap, the IESO explains, is “to understand potential change, challenge and opportunities facing IESO and the broader electricity sector through 2030 and to prioritize efforts to prepare for that change in order to ensure a cost-effective and reliable electricity system into the future.”
Extensive work has taken place already, including engaging with key organizations and market participants, defining relevant terms, clarifying the scope and tools that will be used. The IESO notes that “the Roadmap establishes priorities for innovation activities – learning, capability building, enabling the innovation of others (to compete in IESO-administered markets) – for improved electricity system cost-effectiveness and reliability.” The Roadmap is intended to set a framework and focus for sector evolution that provides an opportunity for coordination of IESO efforts with regulatory and policy changes to support modernization to enhance both cost-effectiveness and reliability. Over 100 organizations and 200 individuals were included in the IESO’s consultations between August and November 2018.
Feedback from the external stakeholders was compiled into the results presented in the report shared on November 28. The report is available on the IESO website.
Based on discussions with stakeholders, “Unlocking the value of new and existing resources” was the most-identified opportunity resulting from electricity sector disruption. Other identified opportunities included:
• Allowing aggregated resources on the grid
• Localized pricing and demand response
• The ability to “see” more resources on the grid.
Next steps for the IESO in this process include developing an innovation implementation plan. The IESO notes this “Will include projects with funding committed in 2019 capital budget amongst other initiatives. A Roadmap document will be published on the IESO website in January 2019. In addition, a partnerships plan to support the roadmap implementation will also be released in the new year.