{"id":3532,"date":"2013-08-14T15:22:12","date_gmt":"2013-08-14T19:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=3532"},"modified":"2013-08-29T00:20:55","modified_gmt":"2013-08-29T04:20:55","slug":"front-porch-perspective-energy-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/front-porch-perspective-energy-2\/","title":{"rendered":"FRONT PORCH PERSPECTIVE: Energy 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Siting of Large Energy Infrastructure Projects \u2013 Part II
\nBy Stephen Somerville<\/strong><\/p>\n

In my last column I mentioned that an important public policy consultation had been taking place across Ontario this summer that has really gone under the radar.
\nThe Minister of Energy tasked the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) and the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) back in mid-June with leading public consultations into the siting of large energy infrastructure projects in Ontario. The OPA and the IESO were to make recommendations to the Minister by August 1st.
\nI attended a couple of the public consultations where some very good discussion and debate was generated.
\nThere were two central topics and four associated questions for each topic that were used to guide the discussion during these consultations.
\nThe first hour dealt with the Regional Electricity Planning Process while the other central topic was the actual siting of large energy infrastructure and allocating responsibilities and costs.
\nThe forty-five page OPA\/IESO Report, entitled \u201cEngaging Local Communities in Ontario\u2019s Electricity Planning Continuum\u201d, was made public on August 5.
\nAll in all, not a bad effort as the OPA\/IESO was under a short turnaround time and they had to balance the expectations of a large number of stakeholders with often competing electricity notions.<\/p>\n

\u2022 There are three core recommendations outlined in the Report:
\n\u2022 Strengthen processes for early and sustained engagement with local governments and the public;
\n\u2022 Provide local governments and communities with a greater voice and responsibility in planning and siting; and
\n\u2022 Support inter-
\nministerial coordination.
\nThe report then provides a further fifteen recommendations under core objectives like; Bringing Communities to the Table, Linking Local and Provincial Planning, Reinforcing the Planning\/Siting Continuum and Enhancing Electricity Awareness and Improving Access to Information.
\nBut what does this mean for us here in Aurora and for our local politicians?
\nThe four recommendations under the section, Linking Local and Provincial Planning, offer a clue:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Integrate electricity needs into relevant municipal plans;
\n\u2022 Integrate relevant municipal information into regional electricity plans;
\n\u2022 Promote community energy planning; and
\n\u2022 Recognize broader provincial and local interests in electricity system planning.<\/p>\n

For our community, the report outlines that earlier and more meaningful dialogue and direct community engagement when choosing electricity options \u2013 be it conservation, transmission or generation alternatives \u2013 will take place.
\nOur local politicians will also be given more opportunity for input into the process, but they will also be given more formal responsibility in electricity matters.
\nThe OPA\/IESO are looking to strengthen the \u201cProvincial Policy Statement of 2005 which provides guidance to municipalities as they prepare or review their Official Plans, and should be modified to include a more explicit requirement for municipalities to consider electricity needs in relevant municipal plans\u2026\u201d
\nTo me it looks a lot like the government may want to duplicate the process used in land planning. The provincial government a number of years ago introduced the Places to Grow Act whereby they set intensification targets across the province and the various regions\/ municipalities had a certain amount of time to have their own local Official Plans reflect the provincial goals.
\nIn this case, the Ministry of Energy, utilizing the expertise of both the OPA and the IESO, would produce (after public and industry stakeholdering) an updated version of the provincial Long Term Energy Plan.
\nThe plan would contain regional power initiatives, and local municipalities would have to incorporate this into their own local community energy plans.
\nThe OPA\/IESO also recommends creating regional electricity planning Advisory Committees, with members to include \u201celected officials, economic development officers and other community\/business representatives.\u201d
\nPage eleven of the Report states \u201cThe Advisory Committee should be consulted regarding local priorities to be considered in the planning process when assessing alternative solutions for meeting the region\u2019s electricity needs. The Committee should be informed of the costs and benefits of alternative solutions.\u201d
\nThe OPA\/IESO also recommends increased support for community energy planning. \u201cComprehensive energy planning includes consideration of electricity as well as natural gas, district energy and transportation\u2026 In the longer term, this might include exploring a mandatory requirement to include energy targets in Official Plans, such as in B.C.\u201d
\nWhile the report did recommend giving local communities a seat at the regional electricity planning table to ensure that their interests are included, the OPA\/IESO did not promise to provide them with an outright veto over the siting of new generation in their community.
\nMore on this point and local power reliability requirements versus a province-wide system need for power \u2013 and the associated responsibilities and cost allocation – in my next column. <\/p>\n

Stephen can be contacted at
\nstephengsomerville@yahoo.com
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Siting of Large Energy Infrastructure Projects \u2013 Part II By Stephen Somerville In my last column I mentioned that an important public policy consultation had been taking place across Ontario this summer that has really gone under the radar. The Minister of Energy tasked the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) and the Independent Electricity System Operator […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-UY","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-18 13:09:22","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3532\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}