Q1 2023 Reliability Outlook Now Available
March 23, 2023
The IESO is preparing for another summer of tight grid conditions, working closely with market participants to take the necessary actions needed to maintain reliability.
Reserve shortages have the potential to appear this summer, mostly driven by coincident nuclear outages. The IESO is working with participants to reschedule outages and maintain system adequacy through this period. If outages cannot be moved, Ontario may have to rely on more supply from other jurisdictions and/or additional operating procedures in order to ensure reliability, especially under extreme weather conditions. Sufficient reserves should be available for the winter of 2023/24.
After two years of very modest growth, demand for electricity is expected to decline by 0.5 per cent to 136 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2023. This decrease is mostly as a result of economic factors such as high inflation and geopolitical events that contribute to uncertainty and instability. Demand for electricity is expected to rebound in 2024 as economic conditions improve. The long-term demand forecast shows strong growth due to electrification and activity in the mining, agricultural and industrial sectors.
The full report is available here.