N/A

Act

Electricity Act, 1998, other Acts as required.

To support specific design elements, and overall administration of the registry, legislative and regulatory changes are anticipated to be required. The ministry is contemplating the following changes to legislative and regulatory powers (note that the following does not represent an exhaustive listing of the various elements of the proposal and other items may be added and these items may be amended as the Government deems necessary):

Provide authority to the IESO to establish or designate a CEC registry for Ontario, and specify the administrative requirements for a CEC registry for use in Ontario.
Authorize the IESO to act as a market participant, and to make available the CECs it holds.
Allow the minister to set rules and requirements for the operation of, or participation in, the registry.
Allow the minister to direct how the revenues from CECs created by regulated assets owned by Ontario Power Generation Inc. or CECs arising from IESO's procurement contracts should be used, including directly benefiting ratepayers and supporting the future development of new clean energy in the province.
Ensure the retirement of CECs associated with generation facilities in Ontario is allocated to electricity loads (electricity consumed by entities) within the province of Ontario.
Add reporting requirements for the sale and retirement of CECs to ensure transparency and accountability.

The registry would be enabled in a manner that preserves future flexibility for interconnection with other markets, treatment of import/export of electricity, and treatment of new generating facilities.

To help inform any required amendments, the ministry would like to hear from Ontarians, businesses interested in acquiring CECs to achieve their environmental and sustainability goals, as well as Indigenous communities, industry associations, power generators, electricity retailers, utilities, municipalities and consumers.

The intent of the CEC registry is to offer Ontario industry and consumers a transparent tracking system that shows voluntarily purchased CECs that have been generated in Ontario.

The decision to acquire CECs would be at the discretion of individual consumers. Non-participating consumers would not incur any new or incremental administrative costs. Clean capacity to serve the needs of Ontario consumers would still be available regardless of participation in the CEC registry.

Depending on the final design of the proposed registry, participants may be required to pay a fee. For example, consumers who choose to purchase CECs may pay the administrative costs associated with maintaining a registry account and purchasing and retiring CECs.

The IESO, as the registry administrator, would likely incur administrative costs associated with establishing a registry or participating in an existing registry and reporting on the sale of CECs.

The IESO and Ontario Power Generation (OPG) own or control the environmental attributes from the output of most electricity generation facilities in Ontario. The IESO and OPG, as well as any independent power producers (including future facilities and potentially existing facilities re-contracted under a future IESO procurement initiative) may incur costs associated with CEC transactions.

22-ENDM012

August 2, 2022

September 16, 2022

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