Powering More Together

Electricity Canada: The Grid 2022

Robin Yee

Manager of U.S. Affairs, Electricity Canada

So many shifts are taking place, and the pace of change is speeding up: climate change, remote work, pandemic measures, and security threats, just to name a few. More than ever, it’s important to pause and look at what we can draw on as we chart our course ahead. We can rely on engineering and technical improvements to drive efficiencies or aid problem-solving. We can use regulatory developments to enable new technologies and support our evolving priorities.

But perhaps the most important resource of all is a strong working relationship. Relationships, along with the complementary knowledge and the skillsets they bring, can provide great clarity during unprecedented times.

For over a century, Canadians and Americans have worked together to keep our shared electricity grid reliable, safe and secure. Through these crossborder institutions, we have developed a culture of information sharing and cooperation to protect our grid from threats such as cyber attacks and major storms. We have developed standards and best practices that keep our grid reliable. And crossborder transmission connections have allowed for a greater diversity of supply and have connected clean energy to demand.

This long-standing relationship has served both countries during the pandemic, accelerating learning opportunities and policy development in the electricity sector. This collaboration allowed electricity companies to quickly understand what worked, and what needed improvement. This cooperation will be essential in dealing with future events such as extreme weather, security threats, and decarbonization. The Roadmap for a Renewed U.S.-Canada Partnership, announced last year outlined the need “to take a coordinated approach to accelerating progress towards sustainable, resilient, and clean energy infrastructure, including encouraging the development of cross-border clean electricity transmission.”

The cross-border Great Northern Transmission Line is an example of this partnership. The line pairs new U.S. wind generation with Canadian hydro and transmission, offering benefits for both countries, including reliability, affordability, and clean energy advantages.

Canada’s predominantly clean, dispatchable baseload generation fleet can serve as backstop energy to U.S. variable renewables, such as solar and wind, supporting the further development of renewable generation, while providing reliability and resilience benefits to both countries. Canadian hydroelectric power allows U.S. variable renewables to sell excess electricity to Canada which allows hydro reservoirs to reserve water, which can be used to generate power to be sold to the U.S. when needed in the future.

As Canada and the U.S. continue to work together to build back better, there is no question that electricity will continue to play a central role in our combined economic growth and clean energy future. The Canada-U.S. electricity relationship can connect more clean and reliable electricity to demand, and achieve a shared vision of an even more sustainable, reliable, and affordable electricity future.

To learn more about this longstanding partnership, visit Electricity Canada’s Power More Together microsite: www.powermoretogether.com.

Electricity Canada: The Grid 2022

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