IESO Secures Resources Through Enhanced 2023 Capacity Auction
December 7, 2023
Ontario’s electricity grid is prepared for the next 18 months as the IESO announced today that 1,867 megawatts (MW) of supply for summer 2024 and 1,310 MW for winter 2024-2025 were acquired through its 2023 Capacity Auction.
With energy demand increasing – coupled with pressure on supply due to nuclear refurbishments and the scheduled retirement of Units 1 and 4 at Pickering Nuclear Generating Station in 2024 – this annual auction will be critical to help support reliability in Ontario’s grid as grid conditions change from season to season. While capacity auction resources are rarely called on, they help provide assurance that additional resources are available if needed during extreme conditions.
This year, the auction featured a number of enhancements which include a more accurate assessment of a resource’s potential contributions to the adequacy of the system. Under the qualification process, historic performance and availability data were applied to determine a resource’s Unforced Capacity (UCAP) value to represent its expected contributions to resource adequacy.
For clearing prices and other details, please see the post-auction report. If you have trouble opening this link, please use a browser other than Chrome or you can also copy and paste the full URL into your browser’s search bar: http://reports.ieso.ca/public.