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ADDRESSING CHALLENGES TO ELECTRICITYINFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT
Brief submitted to the Council of Energy Ministersby the Canadian Electricity Association
September 2007
Contact: Eli Turk613.230.9876, turk@canelect.ca 
 
 
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I. Introduction
The dialogue on electricity issues almost always begins and ends with infrastructure. The fundamentaland underlying role of the electricity system is to provide safe, secure, reliable, sustainable andcompetitively priced electricity. For members of the Canadian Electricity Association (CEA), there is nogreater challenge than that of building infrastructure to renew our existing system, accommodate loadgrowth and meet the needs of our customers.A recent survey of electricity sector CEOs ranked infrastructure development as the most importantissue facing the Canadian electricity industry. Timely and coherent regulation was second on the list,followed by climate change. These results closely mirrored the output of a recent CEA strategicexercise in which the Association’s Board of Directors identified the industry’s most pressing issuesand established a road map to address them. The ability to build electricity infrastructure was the topissue for CEA Board members. The other priority areas identified were: regulation, environment,energy efficiency, technology, and security.Both the CEO survey and CEA’s strategic priority development process underscored the magnitudeof the challenge of building infrastructure to maintain the reliability and cost-effectiveness of our electricity networks.In this submission to the Council of Energy Ministers (CEM), CEA examines challenges toinfrastructure development and makes recommendations for government policy and action in supportof this objective.
 
 
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II. Canada’s ElectricityInfrastructure Advantage
Twenty four hours a day, 365 days of the year,Canadian utilities must match production fromgenerating plants with customer demand atcompetitive prices, while maintaining systemreliability, meeting environmental objectives andfulfilling safety and human resource needs. Theresult is a highly developed system thatoptimizes generation, transmission anddistribution technologies. Competitively pricedelectricity services underpin and enable growthin all sectors of the Canadian economy, whilecontributing significantly to Canada’s exportrevenues.The costs of power interruptions can besignificant, a fact highlighted by the Final Reportof the U.S.-Canada Power System Outage TaskForce that studied the August 14, 2003 Blackoutin the United States and Canada. According tothe report, in Canada, gross domestic productwas down 0.7 percent in August, there was anet loss of 18.9 million work hours, andmanufacturing shipments in Ontario were down$2.3 billion (CDN).The potential of the electricity system ismaximized when it takes advantage of the broadrange of natural endowments across the countryand produces power with diverse fuels,including water, coal, oil, natural gas, uranium,wind, and biomass. Water resources havetraditionally played the largest role in Canada’selectricity fuel mix
(Figure 1).
About seventy fivepercent of Canada’s electricity is generated fromzero- or low-emitting sources, including hydro,nuclear and emerging renewables. In addition,coal-fired and other thermal power generationare important components of the generationmix, particularly in Alberta, Saskatchewan,Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia
(Figure 2).
 
With a growing economy and a risingpopulation, jurisdictions and companies acrossCanada are looking to both traditional andemerging technologies to meet expandingdemand growth and replace or refurbish agingfacilities.
Figure 1:
 
Canadian Electricity Generation by Fuel Type, 2006 Figure 2:
 
Canadian Electricity Generation by Region and Fuel Type, 2006 
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