Ontario Smart Grid Forum

Transcription

1 Ontario Smart Grid Forum Notes of Meeting Date: Monday, September 29 th, 2014 Time: 09:00 to 3:00 Location: IESO Minto Plaza Office, Main Boardroom 655 Bay Street, Suite 410 Toronto, ON Forum members attending: Bruce Campbell Forum Chair David Collie Electrical Safety Authority Raymond Tracey Essex Power (phone) Norm Fraser Hydro Ottawa David McFadden Ontario Centres of Excellence Julia McNally Ontario Power Authority Usman Syed Ontario Ministry of Energy Jonathan Dogterom MaRS Discovery District Ivano Labricosa Toronto Hydro Bryan Goulden Union Gas Ian Rowlands University of Waterloo Corporate Partners Committee members attending: Ron Dizy Invited guests attending: CPC Chair The Honourable Reza Moridi, Minister of Research and Innovation Working Group members attending: Raed Abdullah Edward Arlitt David Barrett Hydro Ottawa (phone) IESO IESO See Appendix A for a cumulative list of open Forum action Items. {09:13 call to order} Agenda Item # 1: Previous SGF Minutes 1 DRAFT Minutes of the June 16 th, 2014 meeting of the Smart Grid Forum: The draft minutes of the June 16 th, 2014 meeting were tabled with a comment deadline of October 7 th. No amendments were tabled at today s meeting. 1 MINUTES POLICY: Since February 28 th 2013, the Forum adopted a new policy for reviewing and approving meeting minutes, whereby any draft minutes will be published after the stipulated comment deadline if no material comments are received. It will no longer be necessary to bring unchanged minutes back to the next meeting to reconfirm as final. 1

2 Agenda Item # 2: Recommendation Tracking Log {see also: i. Recommendation Tracking Log, Issue 11.1 and, ii. SGF meeting support presentation} Edward Arlitt (Working Group Chair) spoke to the Forum s Recommendation Tracking Log, Issue 11.1, and indicated that no further amendments were proposed at today s meeting. As discussed at the June 16 th meeting however, the Working Group has now tabled its interim review of the Forum s 2011 recommendation concerning the Ontario Smart Home Roadmap 2 and particularly the next milestones that were previously identified by the Forum for 2015 (see Agenda Item # 8 for further details). Agenda Item # 3: SGF External Contact Log {see also: i. External Contacts Log, Issue 0.3 and, ii. SGF meeting support presentation} Edward Arlitt, SGF Working Group Chair presented the Forum with the third edition of the Smart Grid Forum External Contacts Log. With Issue 0.3, one additional group (NEDO, Japan see External Contacts Log for details) had been identified as an organizational contact by the Ministry of Energy. In addition, a member asked that the Energy Council of Canada be added to the External Contacts Log due to its increased interest in smart grids. Off-agenda Item: Update: Smart Grid-related export development David McFadden provided the Forum with a brief update regarding smart grid-related export development opportunities in the Caribbean region. 3 A delegation of Canadian representatives, including former Forum Chair Paul Murphy (now Chair of the MaRS Advanced Energy Centre) will be attending the upcoming Caribbean Renewable Energy Forum during the first week of October. The Caribbean Renewable Energy Forum will include Energy Ministers and other senior officials from several Caribbean countries. An objective of this effort is to allow the Canadian contingent to develop a better understanding of the local challenges they may face. To this end, a consultant with regional expertise in this area has also been engaged. David also apprised the group that since the Canadian-Caribbean Energy Solutions Forum met back in June, MaRS is now taking a lead role in organizing this effort. Agenda Item # 5 - Overview to MaRS Advanced Energy Centre {see also, presentation delivered at today s meeting.} Ron Dizy, apprised the Forum of his new role as Executive Director of the MaRS Advanced Energy Centre. During the delivery of his presentation, Ron elaborated on the MaRS Advanced Energy Centre s mission to provide a platform and place for innovation to take place, and the impressive array of training and education services provided by the organization. Ron also detailed several upcoming projects of the MaRS Advanced Energy Centre (see presentation for details). In addition, Ron related that MaRS is also delving into the topic of barriers to innovation in Ontario, and is in the midst of analyzing the data collected by a recent survey they conducted on the topic. 4 Ron also observed that several utilities in 2 Specifically, Recommendation N5 the Smart Home Roadmap Industry and government should work toward meeting the development timelines established in the Smart Home Roadmap to bring greater control, choice, market participation and other benefits to electricity consumers. The Forum will facilitate timely development. 3 See also, the minutes of the December 12 th 2013, February 19 th, April 29 th and June 16 th Forum meetings. 4 Forum and Corporate Partner Committee members were also invited to participated in this survey see communication to the group on September 10,

3 Ontario were now making heavy use of unregulated affiliates to move forward their innovation efforts, which prompted some discussion amongst Forum members. {At 10:05 the group adjourned discussion of this topic in order to accommodate the arrival of Honourable Reza Moridi, Minister of Research and Innovation} Agenda Item # 4 The Honourable Reza Moridi, Minister of Research and Innovation The Honourable Reza Moridi, Minister of Research and Innovation, was introduced to the group by Forum member Jon Dogterom, who outlined the Minister s career achievements. The Minister was then greeted by the Forum Chair, Bruce Campbell, at which point the Minister provided his own informal remarks to the group. In addition to outlining his extensive personal connection to the energy industry over the course of his career, the Minister also highlighted the importance of smart grid technologies to deliver the benefits of reliability, overall availability and affordability. The Minister also elaborated on the linkages between smart grid technologies and export development, and conservation. During the Forum Chair s remarks, Bruce Campbell apprised the Minister of the Forum s upcoming public report on smart grid-related innovation and invited further dialogue with the Ministry of Research and Innovation as things progressed. During the ensuing discussion other Forum members also provided an overview to other smart grid-related innovation activities such as recent developments with the OPA Conservation Fund, and the Caribbean export development efforts. The Chair thanked the Minister for taking the time to visit with the Forum and reiterated the Forum s invitation for further dialogue with the Ministry. {at 10:45, the Forum resumed discussion of Ron Dizy s presentation regarding the Advanced Energy Centre} Agenda Item # 5 - Overview to MaRS Advanced Energy Centre {see also, presentation delivered at today s meeting.} Ron Dizy completed his presentation by outlining the Advanced Energy Centre s current project plans being pursued with a variety of partners. These projects included: Microgrid Demonstration projects Utility Innovation Prioritization Whole Commercial and Industrial (C&I) Building Solutions Ontario Green Button Initiative Monetizing the Meter Data Management Repository (MDM/R) Valuing the Benefits of Storage During the discussion of these various projects Forum members discussed the emergence of regional planning in the province of Ontario and the possibilities of encouraging the adoption of innovative technologies at the grassroots level particularly in the context of energy storage initiatives. 3

4 Agenda Item # 6 - Recent developments with the OPA Conservation Fund (Julia McNally) {see also, accompanying presentation entitled, Conservation Innovation } Julia McNally began by providing an overview to the scope of the OPA Conservation Fund, its funding levels and plans for the next generation of programs and policies. At the outset of her presentation, Julia alluded to a recent report commissioned by the OPA regarding the potential, achievable conservation capacity in the province of Ontario. This report is publicly available on the OPA website. 5 During Julia s presentation the following comments and discussion amongst Forum members took place: A member enquired as to the governance of various conservation initiatives. To this, it was explained that the OPA does not run the programs themselves but rather assists in their funding and facilitation. A member questioned whether or not these programs had too much specificity as to what technologies should be employed. In response, it was explained that for the most part, these programs are intended to set out functionality and not the technologies themselves. When discussing benchmarking, a member suggested that evaluation standards can be inherently biased and even the selection of the standards themselves can be a very subjective exercise. As a counterpoint to this, another member suggested that in the absence of any such common benchmarking it is impossible to evaluative the effectiveness of these programs. A member openly questioned the group regarding whether or not conservation measures should be financed through on-bill financing. To this, several members voiced their support for such a notion though one member cited a particular LDC in Ontario where such an option is offered to customers, but with very little take-up thus far. Agenda Item # 7 Report Back from the Corporate Partners Committee (CPC) {Today s update was provided by Ron Dizy (CPC Chair)} In his report to the Forum, Ron Dizy (CPC Chair) indicated that the CPC had spent a considerable amount of time over the past few months discussing smart grid innovation, in the context of the Forum s upcoming report on the topic. AMI Sandbox Sub-committee: Ron indicated that the AMI Sandbox Committee intends to present its findings to the Smart Grid Forum at the upcoming Forum meeting on October 28 th. 6 Ron then outlined how the thinking of the sub-committee has evolved over the past couple of years. As things currently stand, the intended scope of the sandbox now goes well beyond the Forum s original 2011 recommendation for a test bed facility for AMI gateway devices to interface with Ontario s proprietary AMI systems. The sub-committee is now leaning towards an arrangement by which there is a coordinating entity across a wide range of diverse testing facilities. During the ensuing discussion, several Forum members mentioned that most of Ontario s LDCs have little access to comprehensive testing facilities and the notion of a single window to Ontario s testing facilities seems like a useful concept. {12:20 - lunch break} 5 Specifically, see, ICF Marbek, Achievable Potential: Estimated Range of Electricity Savings from Energy Efficiency and Energy Management released on OPA website, March 31, see also, minutes of February 19 th, 2014 Forum meeting, regarding the previous presentation of the AMI Sandbox sub-committee to the Forum. 4

5 Agenda Item # 9: Smart Grid Forum Working Group Report {see also, i. Working Group s interim assessment of the Ontario Smart Home Roadmap targets; ii. revised outline for smart grid innovation paper; and iii. Support presentation for today s meeting.} Edward Arlitt (Working Group Chair) delivered the Working Group s report on two main topics as follows: 1. Working Group s examination of the Ontario Smart Home Roadmap targets for 2015 as per an action item from the June 16 th Forum meeting; and, 2. Further development of a proposal for the Forum s next public report. Ontario Smart Home Roadmap assessment: Edward delivered an overview to the Working Group s preliminary assessment of the 2015 Ontario Smart Home Roadmap targets, which were further detailed in the interim assessment document that was distributed with today s meeting materials. During his presentation, Edward also highlighted two issues which the Working Group particularly wanted to bring to the Forum s attention as follows: 1. The potential need for a follow-up examination regarding the application of open interoperability standards; and 2. Potential further examination of the scope of smart home-related service offerings available in Ontario. Some of the comments registered by Forum members during this part of the presentation were as follows: Several Forum members stated that they were unconcerned with various partnerships forming between device manufacturers and app development platform providers. One Forum member suggested that such partnerships will ultimately encourage more interoperability over the longer term and should not be discouraged. Another member observed that there is a natural incentive for appliance manufacturers to be compatible with multiple platform providers, which should help prevent uncompetitive combinations from forming. A member openly wondered why home developers don t seem to be forging more partnerships to offer new-build smart homes in Ontario. Several members questioned why Ontario often doesn t seem to be the first jurisdiction chosen to launch various smart home products and what could or should be done to effect better takeup rates. Several members agreed with the second of the two propositions put forward by the Working Group namely the suggestion that the Forum should conduct a further examination of the scope of smart home-related service offerings available in Ontario. Innovation paper: Edward presented the revised outline of the Forum s innovation paper and detailed some of the recent discussions that took place within the Working Group and the Corporate Partners Committee over the summer. At issue for today s meeting, is to consider the types of recommendations that the Forum should put forward. As things currently stand, the proposed outline of the paper is extremely broad, and the Working Group is suggesting that considering the Recommendations Section first should help focus the rest of the paper. During the ensuing discussion, the following comments were made: 5

6 The Forum s first paper made a lot of recommendations, and got a lot of traction as a result, and we should therefore not shy away from making recommendations in this paper as well. Several other Forum members expressed their agreement with this notion. A Forum member suggested that the paper should highlight how the context has shifted over the past 4 years. Specifically, it was suggested that the innovation emphasis has shifted from utility applications to behind-the-meter applications. It was suggested that the Forum should revisit all of its previous innovation-lead recommendations still outstanding, perhaps as part of the report. Several members agreed to this and the following ACTION ITEM was taken by the Working Group: ACTION ITEM: The Working Group shall take an inventory of the Forum s previous innovation-related recommendations outstanding and make recommendations as to which ones should be highlighted, changed or stood down as part of the Forum s upcoming innovation report. A member openly asked the group if public utilities should actively engage in behind-the-meter business activities, and this spawned an extensive discussion. To this several Forum members offered their comments. One member suggested that Ontario has a highly fragmented distribution system, and most behind-the-meter activities will be conducted by non-utility actors. Another member countered this notion by stating that there is little support for utility innovation and entering the behind-the-meter market was a matter of survival. Another question posed to the group, was whether or not the Forum should publicly support the recommendations of the recent joint report of the Canadian Electricity Association (CEA) and Canadian Gas Association, which advocates for a pooled funding model for utility innovation (see also, Agenda Item # 9). Opinion on this proposition was somewhat divided and some Forum members expressed the following comments: o o o o A member suggested that this would be a very timely topic for the Forum report to address, particularly given the pending overhaul of the Ontario Smart Grid Fund Utilities should have a say in how the money collected from a pooled funding model should be spent. Another member stated that the Forum should not rush into recommending an innovation fund that his funded by ratepayers, when there is strong counter argument that such activities should be funded by shareholders. A member suggested that Ontario s LDCs are heading towards a business model similar to the UK where LDCs are solely a wires business. Another member countered that the LDC business model is changing and some LDCs will instead make a transformative leap to providing behind-the-meter services. That member also noted that the state of New York is in the process of examining the future role of the public utility. OUTCOME: It was suggested, and generally agreed that the topic of future of innovation in the distribution sector be explored at the 2015 IESO Stakeholder Summit as part of focusing the Forum s recommendations on what types of innovation recommendations should be put forward in the Forum s paper. 6

7 ACTION ITEM: Bruce Campbell and IESO staff shall examine the possibility of adding a debate on the future of innovation in the distribution sector to the agenda of the 2015 IESO Stakeholder Summit, consisting of a panel of speakers representing a wide spectrum of viewpoints. ACTION ITEM: The Working Group and CPC shall develop questions regarding the future of innovation in the distribution sector, that could form both the basis of a survey of the Forum and CPC membership, and be used at the 2015 IESO Stakeholder Summit. Agenda Item # 10: Literature Review {see meeting support presentation for further details} Edward Arlitt provided a synopsis of the following two items: 1. Concentric Energy Advisors, CEA, CGA, Stimulating innovation on behalf of Canada s electricity and natural gas consumers. Aug, Greenfield, A. Against the Smart City (publisher: Do projects; 1.3 edition, Dec ) Item # 11: Upcoming smart grid events {See also, support presentation for today s meeting.} During the meeting s standing review of upcoming smart grid-related events, the following additional events were tabled: 1) October 21 st, Bennett Jones, Toronto: Mindfirst Seminar #14 Tackling Barriers to Innovation in the Ontario Energy System 2) November 18-19, Toronto: Association of Power Producers of Ontario (APPrO), Technical subconference to the annual 2014 Conference: The Debut of New Energy Storage Technology Impact and Implications for Ontario Agenda Item # 12: Roundtable update: Usman Syed (Ministry of Energy and Working Group member) indicated that the Ministry was conducting a study of the costs and benefits of smart metering and smart grids in conjunction with Navigant Consulting. It was agreed that Navigant Consulting would be invited to attend the next Forum meeting on October 28 th. {14:25 Adjournment} Next Forum Meeting: Tuesday, October 28 th, 2014, 09:00 7

8 See also: Smart Grid Forum Recommendation Tracking Log APPENDIX A S.G.F. OPEN Action Items as of September 29 th, 2014 Action Item The Working Group shall take an inventory of the Forum s previous innovation-related recommendations outstanding and make recommendations as to which ones should be highlighted, changed or stood down as part of the Forum s upcoming innovation report. Bruce Campbell and IESO staff shall examine the possibility of adding a debate on the future of innovation in the distribution sector to the agenda of the 2015 IESO Stakeholder Summit, consisting of a panel of speakers representing a wide spectrum of viewpoints. The Working Group and CPC shall develop questions regarding the future of innovation in the distribution sector that could form both the basis of a survey of the Forum and CPC membership, and be used at the 2015 IESO Stakeholder Summit. Forum members are to relate their anecdotal examples (supported by readily-available or documented evidence) of the uses of smart grid technologies during the December, 2013 ice storm to Edward Arlitt for compilation, and for potential future use by the Forum. Corporate Partners Committee will further investigate the diffused benefits problem in the context of both energy storage and DSM activities. Forum members specifically identified in the CPC energy storage sub-group recommendations are asked to designate a contact point at each organization to carry forward these discussions, give due consideration to the recommendations and update the Forum on progress in their respective organizations at a future meeting. Date Assigned Assigned To Target Completion Sept. 29, 2014 Working Group Dec. 10, 2014 Status OPEN Sept. 29, 2014 IESO Dec. 10, 2014 OPEN Sept. 29, 2014 Working Group CPC Dec. 10, 2014 OPEN Feb. 19, 2014 Forum Apr. 29, 2014 OPEN Nov. 1, 2012 CPC Q2, 2013 OPEN Progress report provided on Feb 28, 2013 Sept. 12, 2012 Forum Dec. 3 rd, 2012 OPEN CLOSED Action Items: As of October 12 th, 2010 closed action items are no longer listed in the minutes as per the agreement reached at the September 7 th, 2010 Forum meeting. The removal of an open action item from the above list constitutes the completion of that item. 8