Talking about Electricity Canada's state of the industry report "Build it" with CEO Francis Bradley

Build it - the 2023 state of the Canadian electricity industry was launched at the GLOBExCHANGE on February 28. Current Affairs talked to Electricity Canada President and CEO, Francis Bradley about the state of the industry report, and the issues facing electricity providers in the coming year.

--

Hi Francis. The theme for the state of the Canadian electricity industry report is “Build it”. Can you describe why this embodies the overall theme of the report for 2023?

We have known for a number of years, exactly what needs to be done to be able to meet the commitments for the 2050 net zero economy and the 2035 net zero electricity grid. But the clock is ticking and the urgency to be able to actually deliver upon that dream is getting more and more challenging the longer we wait. The only way we can try to deliver upon that dream is to move quickly to build it now. We have 4705 days as of right now [when the interview was conducted]. As of March 2nd 2023, there are 4687 days.

The report states that one of the greatest dilemmas for electricity companies is that the more we rely on electricity, the more reliable we will need electricity to be. How are our members preparing to face this challenge?

On the one hand we talk about that as a dilemma, but, on the other hand, it’s the challenge of every significant technological advancement. When we introduced the automobile 120 years ago people were asking, what are we going to do because suddenly we are going to be more reliant on automobiles? The internet – I recall a decade and a half ago people were saying, ‘when everything goes on the internet the criticality of the internet is going to be enormous.’ But we seem to manage.

Our members and the sector will work with this like with every other massive transformation. They will build in what needs to be built in to be able to provide the level of reliability that’s going to be required. This will be very much like some of the other technological transformations we’ve seen; the internet, telephones, transportation… As these become more common and society depends upon them more, their reliability becomes evermore important. what happened with previous technological changes is the same thing that is going to happen with this one. We will build in the kind of reliability that will be required.

It is true, though, that reliability is going to be that much more important. That is the system we are going to building and it’s a different system than the one that was built 100 years ago.

On January 1st of this year there were 4748 days until Canada is expected to reach a net zero electricity grid. What are the opportunities our industry can leverage to meet this goal?

When you do the math -- whether it’s the 2035 math or the 2050 math -- one thing becomes abundantly clear. The only way for the math to work is for all options to be on the table. What the electricity sector is going to have to do is pursue every single kilowatt of non-emitting/low-emitting electricity, pursue every opportunity to increase connectivity across the network where there is transmission and distribution, right down to the end customer and work with the end customer to ensure that they are being as efficient as possible and improve the reliability.

I think members are going to be pursuing all of those areas, whether it’s on the generation side, the massive uptake and increase in wind, solar and storage, further building upon our strengths in nuclear and in hydropower… New technologies like marine renewables, offshore winds, all of these things absolutely are going to be required.

We are going to have to interconnect the system. Transmission is going to become increasingly important as well. And this goes back to your earlier question, ‘how do we ensure that the system will be more reliable as we use more electricity’? Well one of the ways to do that is to further increase the integration of systems – so that means more transmission, more interconnection between distribution, it also means more local solutions as well and end customer solutions.

What is the main thing you want readers to take away from this report?

What we want the reader to be left with is two things: a sense of urgency and a sense of optimism.

We really do need to move and to move quickly. We have a dream of a clean future. When you think of what a net zero economy wide 2050 future looks like, that’s a dream of a better, cleaner, more reliable future. And to deliver upon that dream we need to feel a sense of urgency to get on with it and to get on with it immediately.

I want people to be left with a sense of optimism of what that future really will look like. Let’s recognize that this is a dream that is going to benefit society writ large. Look at what happened in Ontario when we eliminated coal, the biggest impact from the elimination of coal, you can find in children’s hospitals. There was a huge reduction in kids that have problems breathing. We significantly increased the air quality in Ontario over the last two decades. Think of that, and what will leave lasting impacts to society as a whole if we are actually able to move to a net zero economy and eliminate or offset the use of fossil fuels. If eliminating coal had that significant improvement in terms of quality of life for people, moving to a net zero world, that vision of a cleaner, brighter, future is the other thing I would like people to walk away with.

Read the full report here. For more information on net zero, check out our new video here.