The results are in for Canada’s first local electricity market … and they look good!

Source: Jake Brooks| · ELECTRICAL BUSINESS · | October 1, 2024

An evaluation of the York Region NWA Demonstration Project

Significant change could be coming to an electrical grid near you. Opportunities may soon open up for a wide variety of clean energy suppliers to add electricity to the grid, and for increasing numbers of relatively small energy producers—including consumers—to enter the energy market using local resources.

Newly released independent research has found that a prudent portfolio of distributed energy resources (DERs) could be less expensive than installing the wires and transformers that would otherwise be needed under reasonably probable conditions in parts of York Region (north of Toronto), depending on the levels of future DER growth and other circumstances.

The authors caution that the findings in this report might not be directly applicable to other time frames, places, or types of distributed energy resources but, taken in context, they are nonetheless remarkable as an indicator of potential change in progress.

Brian Bentz, the president & CEO of Alectra Utilities, said that the York Region NWA Demonstration Project “has proven the potential for using local solutions as a cost effective alternative to traditional electricity infrastructure”.

The energy system (and the industry behind it) could take on a new look if this pattern continues. After many years of energy development focused on large-scale infrastructure, increasing levels of smaller, more locally oriented projects may be coming. For example, according to energy consultant Wood Mackenzie, the market for Distributed Energy Resources in the US, “will nearly double from 2022 to 2027, reaching $68 billion US per year.”