Executive Summary
Over the next 25 years, Ontario’s electricity demand is expected to ramp up significantly due to economic growth, electrification, and evolving technologies.
One of the most promising and cost-effective tools to manage demand are distributed energy resources (DERs), such as smart thermostats, two-way electric vehicle chargers, and home batteries. These technologies can reduce grid strain by shifting electricity from peak times while that flexibility also makes it easier to integrate more renewable energy. In some cases, DERs can also defer the need for costly new infrastructure like power lines.
But while DER adoption has been growing steadily in Ontario, they’ve mainly been used to support the province-wide bulk energy system. Their potential to provide local grid services, meanwhile, has yet to be understood.
This study, prepared by Brattle for Clean Energy Canada, is intended to address this gap by quantifying the potential distribution investment deferral value of DERs in Ontario, using data from the Essex Powerlines system.
