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Editor's note:  SGN Managing Editor Liz Enbysk recently participated in a smart grid media tour hosted by the Ontario provincial government. With journalists from around the world, she visited utilities, smart grid companies and research labs. This is the first of her reports.

 

By Liz Enbysk

SGN Managing Editor

 

In Canada's Ontario province, there is a Minister of Economic Development and Innovation who is keen on the smart grid and sees Ontario as a global clean energy leader. There's also a Minister of Energy who talks up the leading-edge research that's going on in Ontario. And there's a Privacy Commissioner widely known for her work on smart grid related privacy initiatives.

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Distribution utilities in Ontario (and there are about 80 of them) have been rolling out smart meters since 2004 and today there are about 4.6 million deployed. Ontario claims a first in the world in mandating time-of-use pricing for all residential and small business customers; so far about three million customers are on TOU rates with more on the way.

 

Clearly Ontario takes the smart grid seriously – ditto the many R&D efforts that are pushing out related technologies.

 

Provincial leaders see a number of advantages in Ontario's smart grid first mover status:

·         With infrastructure in place, the province is attractive as a test bed for emerging technology development – and the welcome sign is out. GE, Siemens and IBM are among the global companies with a strong presence in Ontario.

·         With five different AMI systems installed (Trilliant, Elster, Sensus, Silver Spring and Tantalus) there's the potential for a wide variety of home energy management products across multiple proprietary AMI protocols. Ontario companies in the space include Energate, Aztech, PowerWatch, Avante and Ecobee.

·         Access to interval data from smart meters can improve system planning

·         With TOU pricing there are real opportunities for businesses to shift load and reduce cost, plus it opens the door to various energy storage business models

Brad Duguid, Ontario's Minister of Economic Development and Innovation, jokes that Canada is probably better known for hockey than clean technology. He quotes hockey great Wayne Gretzky's father, who used to say you need to skate to where the puck will be, not where it is.

"That's really where we're headed in this province," Duguid says, noting that the smart grid and a commitment to R&D and innovation are critical to Ontario's economic transformation. He sees his province as a hotbed for research in clean tech, life sciences, communications and IT.

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