Item - 2025.IE26.14

Councillor Dianne Saxe recommends that:

1. City Council advise the Independent Electricity System Operator that its draft twenty-year Integrated Regional Resource Plan for Toronto is fundamentally incompatible with Toronto’s climate commitments and therefore is unacceptable.

2. City Council request the Toronto Hydro Board to propose and cost a plan for electricity supply to the City of Toronto that is aligned with the City's 2040 net zero target, phases out the Portlands gas plant by 2035 (except in extreme, exceptional and emergency circumstances totalling less than 88 hours per year) and aggressively pursues all cost-effective local energy efficiency, renewable energy and storage options.

3. City Council request the Auditor General of Ontario to review the impact on Torontonian's energy costs and air quality of the Independent Electricity System Operator's draft Integrated Regional Resource Plan, and whether Torontonians' energy costs and exposure to air pollution could be durably reduced by maximizing local energy conservation / efficiency (negawatts) and local distributed energy resources, including vehicle-to-grid integration.

Toronto City Council has recognized that we are in a climate emergency and has committed the city to reach net zero by 2040. These goals cannot be achieved if the electricity supplied to the city by the Independent Electricity System Operator continues to get dirtier and more based on fossil fuels.

On June 26 and 27, 2024, by 2024.MM19.9, City Council requested the Independent Electricity System Operator to work with the City of Toronto and Toronto Hydro to align the Integrated Regional Resource Plan for Toronto’s electricity system, and broader energy system planning and procurement, with the City’s 2040 target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by:

a. phasing out gas-fired electricity generation at the Portlands Energy Centre by 2035, except in extreme, exceptional and emergency circumstances totalling less than 88 hours per year;

b. rapidly increasing local renewable energy generation and storage, and maximizing cost-effective energy efficiency;

c. empowering Toronto Hydro to act as Toronto’s electric Distribution System Operator to support development, integration, and utilization of distributed energy resources; and

d. supporting a transformed electricity system that supplies Toronto with sufficient reliable, affordable, low-carbon electricity to meet present and future needs, including population growth and the electrification of buildings and transport.

The Independent Electricity System Operator has recently proposed a draft twenty year Integrated Regional Resource Plan for Toronto (to 2044) that complies with none of these goals, and is fundamentally incompatible with Toronto’s climate commitments. It does not align with Toronto’s 2040 target, does not envision the phase out of the Portlands Energy Centre, does not allow for a rapid increase in local renewable energy generation and storage, does not maximize cost-effective energy efficiency, and does not empower Toronto Hydro.