Expect to see a report by the end of February by the Ontario Power Authority on the design of an upcoming solicitation seeking combined heat and power.
Under a provincial directive, the authority intends to seek new CHP projects to serve greenhouse operations, agri-food and district energy installations.
Bob Chiarelli, Ontario’s energy minister, recently told the authority to work with stakeholders to come up with a plan by the end of next month on the best way to go about securing the CHP projects. The process must be competitive and seek CHP that will serve areas with capacity needs. Or the projects must provide regional benefits to the grid.
Chiarelli said the winners also should provide on-site heat and dispatchabe power, meaning they should be capable of providing electricity and ancillary services to Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator. Or conversely, the plants must be able to shutdown the services when not needed by the IESO.
Ontario already has 414 MW of CHP in operation. The province confirmed that it plans to press ahead with more CHP in its long-term energy plan released in December.
Watch EnergyEfficiencyMarkets.com’s RFP page for further details.
