Building a net-zero economy is also a scientific and moral imperative. Climate scientists are unequivocally telling us that we must drastically reduce our emissions by and achieve net-zero by if we are to leave a habitable world to our children. The Government of Canada is steadfast in its commitment to achieve its emissions-reduction targets under the Paris Agreement.

It is good for the economy and for the environment. This means working with our partners in Canada to build clean, reliable, and affordable electricity systems across the country.

As more and more Canadians plug in electric vehicles and ride electrified public transit, and as more and more homeowners switch to electric heat pumps, the clean power they need must be there for them—when they need it, and where they need it. By fully decarbonizing our electricity grids by , we are enabling the rest of the economy to electrify by But there is much more work to be done.

And while we recognize that electricity is clearly an area of provincial and territorial jurisdiction, the federal government still has a critical role to play with its regulatory powers over interprovincial power lines, nuclear power, and electricity exports, as well as our shared jurisdiction on environmental regulations.

The scale of the challenges—and of the opportunities—before us is simply too great for any one level of government to tackle alone. A net-zero electricity sector is so fundamentally critical to realizing our climate commitments that it merits our full collaboration.

Enabling the building of grids across the country that are reliable, affordable, and non-emitting, at the pace and scale necessary, is an enormous undertaking—a nation-building project of unprecedented scale and importance in our history.

That is why the Government of Canada is publishing this vision for a clean, affordable, and reliable electricity system for every region of Canada as a call to action to help advance a discussion—among provinces and territories, Indigenous partners, industry and labour, environmental organizations, and civil society—about how to build a clean, reliable, and affordable electricity grid from coast to coast to coast.

It recognizes that no one player can make this transition happen on their own. We need each other. And so, this paper is intended to help bring together provinces, territories, Indigenous leaders, utilities and industry, the private and financial sectors, unions, academics, and civil society in this historic endeavour.

Canada has already made extraordinary progress in transforming the electricity sector due to many concrete steps taken by all levels of government.

A case in point is the phasing out of coal-fired power generation in Ontario, and soon in Alberta. If we get this right, we will create jobs for Canadians, ensure long-term prosperity for communities, and leave a healthier planet for our children.

So, we need to get to work. Let us collectively and collaboratively build a clean, reliable, and affordable grid across this country—together. Climate change is the most pressing environmental challenge of our generation, but if tackled appropriately, it could also present the greatest economic opportunity of our lifetime.

Abundant, affordable, clean electricity is a multi-trillion-dollar market that is fundamental to building a global low-carbon economy.

Canada is ideally positioned to lead the way. We already boast one of the cleanest electricity mixes in the world. In short, energy is part of our national DNA.

We have what it takes to be a supplier of choice as global demand for clean electricity grows exponentially. But past achievements are no guarantee of future success—particularly amid some of the gathering headwinds, which will be discussed later.

If Canada is to seize the sizable investments and well-paying jobs of a clean energy future, we must be visionary in our ambition.

Powering Canada Forward: Building a Clean, Affordable, and Reliable Electricity System for Every Region of Canada seeks to harness the unprecedented opportunities of a net-zero grid by mobilizing a national effort that would rival the building of our railway in the 19th Century—and be just as monumental an undertaking.

For some provinces and territories, this could be the most daunting—and expensive—challenge to achieving net-zero emissions. The federal government is well aware of the scale of what it is requesting. Building net-zero electricity systems that would dwarf the size of our existing grids would require significant investments, co-operation, and determination.

While provinces and territories are responsible for electricity generation and delivery infrastructure within their borders, the federal government has an important role to play through its ability to convene partners and coordinate efforts while also attracting new investments, developing effective regulations, and advancing targeted approaches—all the while ensuring its contributions are responsive to the unique circumstances and opportunities in every region of the country.

The Government of Canada is committed to getting its critical work right as it develops a Clean Electricity Strategy for release in No one can undertake such a massive effort on their own.

And it will need the support of Canadians from coast to coast to coast. As electricity systems across the country expand and decarbonize, we need to work together to not only lower emissions but also to ensure that our grids are reliable and affordable.

This paper takes stock of where we are today and encourages Canadians to think about where we want to be tomorrow. Canada needs a Canadian electricity strategy to coordinate funding and building infrastructure projects across Canada and to work with the electricity sector to implement the planning and building process.

Footnote 1. Electricity is central to our everyday lives and the backbone of our economy. From keeping the lights on in our homes, schools, and hospitals to powering businesses and key infrastructure, it is difficult to imagine any nation in the 21st century thriving without a secure, competitively priced supply of electricity.

Electric vehicles will soon be what the gasoline-powered automobile was to the horse-drawn buggy. Heat pumps will become the common, efficient alternative to oil furnaces.

And electric arc furnaces will replace traditional coal-fired methods for producing steel. This is especially important in highly competitive and emerging global markets such as clean hydrogen, green steel, potash and aluminum, or zero-emission vehicles and batteries, where companies need to account more stringently for their carbon.

Recognizing the value of ESG, Algoma Steel chooses to produce green steel. Similarly, Rio Tinto is decarbonizing supply chains and operations by expanding its low-carbon aluminum production facilities in Canada. The Canada Energy Regulator recently quantified what this increased demand for electricity could mean.

Electric vehicles and the production of hydrogen will be among the leading sources of this new demand, alongside sustained growth in electricity use in residential, commercial, and industrial sectors.

This stacked area chart shows projected electricity demand in the Global Net-zero Scenario in the residential, commercial, industrial, transportation, and hydrogen sectors.

Electricity demand grows steadily in the residential, commercial, and industrial sectors. Transportation and hydrogen production, which are near zero in become major drivers of growth in the projection. Table showing projected electricity demand in the Global Net-zero Scenario in the residential, commercial, industrial, transportation, and hydrogen sectors.

These employment numbers will only grow as investments in renewable energy tend to be more labour intensive than existing jobs in conventional energy sectors. Footnote 3 Footnote 4. This graph showing the direct, indirect and induced jobs created per GWh of electricity from 12 different generation technologies.

Table showing the direct, indirect and induced jobs created per GWh of electricity from 12 different generation technologies. As Canada moves towards net-zero, the need for qualified power sector workers has never been greater.

This stacked graph shows the projected indirect and direct jobs associated with electricity sector investment. It rises from around K in to over k by The benefits of a clean electricity transition go beyond the jobs created within the electricity sector; the industries that rely on clean power will see an increase in employment as well.

A build-out of non-emitting electricity generation and the associated reinforcement and modernization of the grid will also increase direct employment in all parts of Canada. Clean electricity is Canada's greatest competitive advantage in attracting investment—and we need more of it.

Canada already ranks third among developed nations for the lowest electricity rates for residential and industrial use. There is mounting evidence that deploying clean and non-emitting electricity would make energy consumption even more affordable for Canadians over the longer-term Footnote 8.

But decarbonizing and expanding the grid will require a judicious mix of investments to ensure reliability, security, and competitiveness of supply in a way that can be achieved at the lowest long-term cost for ratepayers.

As the past few years have demonstrated, global events can also have a major impact on the volatile price and availability of energy sources such as oil and natural gas.

Renewable and non-emitting sources of energy, on the other hand, tend to be locally generated and less impacted by dramatic global price fluctuations. In addition, the cost of some renewable electricity deployments has been declining steadily over the past decade.

Today, their capital costs are not only competitive with traditional electricity generation but expected to become even more attractive. The Canada Energy Regulator, using a Global Net Zero scenario in its recent report, predicts that the capital costs for solar energy in will drop 62 percent below figures while wind will decline 14 percent over the same timeframe.

Despite this recent analysis, it must be acknowledged that not all potential savings are created equal. Capital costs and electricity rates will vary—sometimes substantially—from province to province and from territory to territory.

In turn, Indigenous communities are also reaping the economic benefits and new jobs that come with the development of these energy projects. I am honoured and pleased to announce that we are celebrating the completion and energization of the kV line to enable the connection of 17 remote First Nations to reliable, clean energy as mandated by our Chiefs and supported by our partners.

This achievement took years of negotiations, perseverance and commitment by the First Nations, governments, and industry.

For a century, delivering electricity to homes and businesses has remained essentially unchanged. This is a disservice to Americans. Too many energy consumers today lack choice, experience unreliable service, and are increasingly concerned about the environmental and public health consequences of fossil fuels.

In the future, more local power from home and business solar and batteries will improve reliability for consumers during increasingly common extreme weather events, and make our energy system more resilient for everyone.

We are at a crossroads: We can choose a path of building a more affordable, clean, reliable energy system that meets the needs of all Americans. Or, continue down a path of centralized, fossil fuel-based electricity production, building power plants and power lines that will be redundant in 10 years, while pushing consumers to go it alone.

We have technologies available today that we did not have , or even 10 years ago. These technologies offer consumers a system that responds to their choices and requirements.

The system must maximize public benefits, not utility shareholder benefits. As they build and upgrade energy infrastructure to serve their communities, utilities pass those costs to consumers with a profit margin.

This system served us well in the past because growing American businesses and households historically demanded more and more power. Utilities delivered a reliable service at a reasonable price. Today, both are in question. Particle pollution and other power plant pollution can increase the risk of heart disease, lung cancer and asthma attacks.

Over the past decade, demand for electricity stopped increasing. Meeting future transmission needs will involve enhancing operational flexibility while ensuring that reliability and resilience of the grid remain paramount.

The Offshore Wind Transmission Study is a PJM-wide reliability study to determine reinforcements to the onshore grid not only to reliably deliver the 14, MW of announced plans for offshore wind for the PJM region, but also to achieve all state renewable portfolio standard targets by determining the necessary renewable capacity by resource type and location.

The effort reflects close interaction between PJM and states regarding the reliable integration of renewable resources onto the grid. This paper details the numerous functions in system planning, operations and markets that PJM oversees to maintain grid reliability. It discusses the work underway to meet future challenges through the four building blocks required for system reliability: adequate supply, accurate forecasting, robust transmission and reliable operations.

It looks like you have JavaScript disabled. For the best experience, please enable JavaScript and upgrade to a modern browser. Home About PJM Ensuring a Reliable Energy Transition. Markets: Securing Reliability Through Competitive Markets Critical Action Immediate Resource Performance Near-term Resource Adequacy Upcoming Reliability Services Critical Action Regulation Market Design: Address regulation market design flaws and potential enhancements including regulation signal design, regulation performance scoring, regulation requirement, regulation market clearing and regulation market settlement.

Regulation Market Design Senior Task Force RMDSTF Immediate Resource Performance Near-term Resource Adequacy Upcoming Reliability Services Reliability Risk Modeling: Ensure that the models used to determine the reliability procurement target accurately account for system risks, particularly winter risk.

Critical Issue Fast Path CIFP - Resource Adequacy Pending at FERC Docket No. Immediate Resource Performance Complete Near-term Resource Adequacy Complete Upcoming Reliability Services. Operations: Evolving Operations for an Evolving Resource Mix Critical Action Immediate Resource Performance Near-term Resource Adequacy Upcoming Reliability Services Critical Action Reserve Certainty: PJM seeks to update its procurement and compensation structure for reserves and improve visibility into the availability of reserves and their fuel supply, especially as more intermittent resources join the system.

Reserve Certainty and Resource Flexibility Incentives Immediate Resource Performance Near-term Resource Adequacy Upcoming Reliability Services Short-Term Forecasting: Improve short-term forecasting by increasing our real-time collection and analysis of data on both customer energy demand and energy supply from sources like wind and solar.

Renewable Dispatch Operating Reserve Clarification for Resources Operating as Requested by PJM Immediate Resource Performance Near-term Resource Adequacy Upcoming Reliability Services Gas-Electric Coordination: Continue to advocate for federal and state policies that align with and recognize the need for improved coordination between the supply of natural gas and the operation of gas-fired electricity generators.

Natural Gas and Electric Market Coordination Immediate Resource Performance Near-term Resource Adequacy Upcoming Reliability Services Winter Storm Elliott Findings: Take additional actions as necessary as a result of lessons learned from Winter Storm Elliott.

Enhancements to Deactivation Rules Immediate Resource Performance Near-term Resource Adequacy Upcoming Reliability Services. Planning: Queue Streamlining and Proactive Planning for the Grid of the Future Critical Action Immediate Resource Performance Near-term Resource Adequacy Upcoming Reliability Services Critical Action Continued Queue Improvements: Streamline the interconnection queue process with the implementation of FERC-approved reforms to ensure that new resources get online faster.

Immediate Resource Performance Near-term Resource Adequacy Upcoming Reliability Services Long-Term Regional Transmission Planning Scenario Analysis: Partner with stakeholders to develop proactive, long-term reliability and policy-driven scenarios that may require transmission expansion for the energy transition.

Planning Committee Immediate Resource Performance Near-term Resource Adequacy Upcoming Reliability Services Resilience: Identify transmission-planning criteria based on extreme events and risks identified to enhance grid resilience. Immediate Resource Performance Near-term Resource Adequacy Upcoming Reliability Services Interregional Integration: Work with the Eastern Interconnection Planning Collaborative EIPC to determine the appropriate transfer capability for tie lines with neighbors based on a changing fleet and future system needs.

Immediate Resource Performance Near-term Resource Adequacy Upcoming Reliability Services. Critical Action Regulation Market Design: Address regulation market design flaws and potential enhancements including regulation signal design, regulation performance scoring, regulation requirement, regulation market clearing and regulation market settlement.

Immediate Resource Performance. Near-term Resource Adequacy.