Latest Reliability Outlook Now Available
June 24, 2021
Ontario’s electricity system is ready for summer. The IESO’s most recent Reliability Outlook is now available outlining system adequacy over the next 18 months.
Demand for electricity is not expected to increase in a material way in the near term, having largely returned to normal after initial lockdowns last spring. A diverse supply of resources will contribute to grid reliability this summer, including demand response, imports, generation and energy storage that were competitively secured in last December’s capacity auction. Large industrial customers will also be supporting grid reliability this summer, by curtailing energy use and reducing peaks through the Industrial Conservation Initiative (ICI). In 2019, the ICI helped reduce demand by ~1,550 MW.
Ontario is forecast to have adequate supply this summer while reserves are forecast to be less than needed during a brief period in the summer of 2022. This potential shortfall will be mitigated by outage management and by the availability of a diverse set of resources acquired in the December 2021 capacity auction.
The full outlook is now available on the IESO website.