We know that rate paradigms may have to be reconsidered and refined to assess and reflect the genuine value proposition offered by distributed energy resource installations of all kinds. Locational considerations, key operational challenges, issues of technical conformity and the relations between new and abiding rate classes will have to be confidently addressed.

With this report we were also releasing the video of the conference proceedings which captures everything that was said at the conference. A link to that video appears in the Appendix. We hope you find this useful.
Finally, we would be remiss if we did not address the importance of effective consumer engagement in the processes that we expect will follow as policymakers and regulators develop the next steps in developing the Ontario response. Mowat has done considerable work on this issue, through a number of reports and papers over the last few years, culminating in a co-authored report earlier this year entitled Representing Consumers’ Interests in Ontario. This report can be found in our On the Grid Series.

The presentations at the conference illustrate, among other things, that the emerging energy trends, and in particular the integration of distributed energy resources (DER) into the distribution system, will have potentially profound implications for all categories of consumers including passive residential consumers. Those implications include the availability of technologies to give consumers far greater control over their consumption and use of electricity, the nature and the costs of the restructuring of the distribution system, and the nature and cost of consumers’ relations to their fellow consumers. It is critical that consumers be made aware of these implications and be given the opportunity to fully and effectively participate in the planning for and the implementation of the new energy markets. To ensure that, it is essential that consumers be independently represented by their own energy consumer advocate. We cannot pretend that any existing mechanism, whether in the government or the OEB or otherwise, can provide the consumers with the information required for them to make fully informed decisions or to provide independent, forceful advocacy on their behalf. It is also essential, we suggest, that consumer representation be in place at the earliest stages of the planning and implementation process.

Finally, we want to acknowledge the very material contribution of Cynthia Chaplin to the creation of the Outcomes Report.