Electricity Generation in Canada

On July 12^th and 13^th, representatives from Electricity Canada’s Generation Council (G-Council) met in Calgary, Alberta for their annual face to face meeting. Generation Council focuses on electricity generation issues, particularly when it comes to energy integration, innovation, climate change mitigation and adaptation, environmental stewardship, and Indigenous affairs. Current Affairs sat down with Brittany Botting, Director of Generation to explore these issues and how they are currently impacting the sector. Hi Brittany, thank you for joining us!

The Federal Budget announced in March that there will be some incredible opportunities for more generation across Canada. What is going to be the biggest challenge to funding it?

I think the largest challenge is just the scale of investment that's required to meet the net zero by 2035 and 2050 targets. There is going to be a need for billions, if not trillions, of dollars of investment over the next three decades into not just the generation space, but also transmission and distribution to decarbonize the electricity grid not to mention meeting the electrification needs for the entire economy. The scale of the challenge is really enormous. It was very positive to see in Budget 2023 investments and support from the federal government to help electricity companies meet that challenge.

The biggest priority for G-Council in Electricity Canada’s business plan for Q1 was the Clean Electricity Regulations (CERs) which will give important guidance on how decarbonizing the grid will roll out. It's now Q3 and we still haven't seen the regulations. Do you think we'll see them soon? How do you prepare for regulations that haven't been released yet?

We do expect to see the Clean Electricity Regulations in the coming weeks. That is a signal that we have been consistently getting from government. Hopefully we will see at least a first draft of the regulations in August or September, because in terms of preparation, the more delay that there is in releasing the clear rules makes it a little bit more challenging for the sector to meet the 2035 objectives.

That said, I think it is more important that we have a workable rules that are flexible and actually reflect our current realities that the sector can then go ahead and implement. So, if the government is taking time to consider these regulations because they're so consequential, that's probably a good thing.

In terms of preparations, we do have enough of a frame, if you will, coming from the government that we're able to start having meaningful conversations with members to get an industry-wide perspective on what the CERs will mean. It gives us time to get our ducks in a row and figure out what is most important, and what values need to be reflected in the final CERs. Obviously, we all would love to see some numbers sooner rather than later, but given the framework that's out there already, there is some information to work from in order to start formulating a response.

Outside of the CERs and the federal budget, what is the biggest challenge in the generation world right now?

I think that goes back to the first question. It's the scale of the challenge and opportunity of meeting our 2035 and 2050 goals. Also in the 2023 Federal the sector received a lot of support. As a result, a big focus of Generation Council is to make sure those supports can help us get to where we need to be going. That includes the Investment Tax Credits, but also targeted programming, the Canada Infrastructure Bank and everything in between.

What is the biggest opportunity?

The biggest opportunity is also the challenge, right? There's going to be a huge demand increase for electricity, double to triple by 2050. That is a huge and opportunity in and of itself for our members to gobble up a larger share of the energy market.

What project are you looking forward to working on with members the most?

Probably the CERs. These are going to be so consequential for how the sector is governed for the next 12-13 years. I'm excited to at least start tackling that with members.

What are those next steps?

Generation Council have decided a couple of things that we're going to do to start preparing for the CER response. One of that is developing a policy brief that lays out some recommendations that are industry wide to help put some positive options on the table for government. We're also developing common messaging that we are hoping the sector utilizes so that we can all be singing from the same song book.

For more information on Electricity Canada’s work on the Clean Energy Regulations, please contact Brittany Botting (botting@electricity.ca).