Q1 2021 Reliability Outlook now available
March 25, 2021
More than a year has now elapsed since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, and Ontario’s economy has started to rebound, which has increased electricity demand. Total demand will increase over the forecast horizon, but the rate of recovery remains hard to predict. Demand in 2021 is expected to reach 133.5 terawatt-hours (TWh), representing a one per cent increase over 2020 but still less than 2019 (134.2 TWh).
Under normal weather conditions, Ontario will have sufficient capacity throughout the entire Outlook period. Under extreme weather conditions, however, reserves may fall short for 10 weeks in the summer of 2022, which will be addressed by acquiring capacity through the Capacity Auction and by rescheduling outages. The full outlook is available on the IESO website.