Ontario Smart Grid Forum
Ontario Smart Grid Forum/Corporate Partners Committee – Special Joint meeting
Notes of Meeting
Date:
Time:
Location:
Monday, October 26, 2015
09:00 to 3:00
IESO offices, 120 Adelaide Street West, Toronto, 16th floor boardroom
Forum members attending:
Bruce Campbell
Corporate Partners Committee members
attending:
Forum Chair
Ron Dizy
Keith Major
David Collie
Raymond Tracey
Bentall Kennedy
Electrical Safety Authority
Essex Power
Paul Brown
Hydro One (for Mike
Penstone)
IESO
London Hydro
MaRS Discovery District
Ontario Ministry of Energy
Union Gas (for David
Simpson)
University of Waterloo
Julia McNally
William Milroy
Jonathan Dogterom
Ken Nakahara
Bryan Goulden
Jatin Nathwani
CPC Chair
Working Group members attending:
Joseph Zerdin
Raed Abdullah
Edward Arlitt
David Barrett
Neetika Sathe
Hydro One
Hydro Ottawa (phone)
IESO
IESO
PowerStream (phone)
See Appendix ‘A’ for a cumulative list of open Forum action Items.
{09:20 – call to order}
Agenda Item # 1: Previous SGF Minutes 1
DRAFT Minutes of the September 29th meeting of the Smart Grid Forum:
The draft minutes of the September 29th, 2015 meeting were tabled with a comment
deadline of Monday, November 2nd. No amendments were tabled at today’s meeting.
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MINUTES POLICY: Since February 28th 2013, the Forum adopted a new policy for reviewing and approving meeting minutes, whereby any
draft minutes will be published after the stipulated comment deadline if no material comments are received. It will no longer be necessary to
bring unchanged minutes back to the next meeting to reconfirm as “final.”
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Agenda Item # 2: SGF External Contact Log
{see also: i. External Contacts Log, Issue 0.7 and, ii. SGF meeting support presentation}
No amendments were tabled at today’s meeting. However, during the discussion it was suggested that
the Forum should reach out to the Energy Council of Canada (a member of the World Energy Council)
and arrange for a future Forum guest speaker.
ACTION ITEM: David McFadden, Bruce Campbell and Jatin Nathwani to coordinate an invitation to the
Energy Council of Canada to extend an invitation to speak at the Forum and possible further dialogue.
Agenda Item # 3: Recommendation Tracking Log
{see also: i. Recommendation Tracking Log, Issue 11.9 ii. Support presentation for today’s meeting}
Edward Arlitt (Working Group Chair) summarized recent updates to the Forum’s Recommendation
Tracking Log, Issue 11.9. Today’s report included a summary of the Forum’s previous
recommendations that dealt with specific ‘barriers’ to smart grid development – an area of renewed
interest for the Forum (see also, minutes of September 29th Forum/CPC meeting). During the discussion,
several members commented on recommendation N7 (aggregators) and the comparative approaches of
different markets. One member commented that this is emerging as a significant issue.
Agenda Item # 4: 2016 meeting schedule
{see also: support presentation for today’s meeting}
Members deliberated on a proposal that the Forum should meet on a quarterly basis in 2016.
OUTCOME: Forum members agreed to the quarterly meeting concept and member will be polled for
potential meeting dates prior to the November 30th meeting for final confirmation as per usual practice.
During the discussion of the 2016 schedule, there was an extensive discussion regarding the Forum’s
ongoing focus. A member initiated the discussion that the Forum could evolve to become a place
where various individual smart grid-related efforts could be brought together for synthesis and
discussion from a high-level policy standpoint. Examples cited included, the Ontario Energy Board’s
previous efforts via the Smart Grid Advisory Committee (SGAC) and the IESO’s Stakeholder Advisory
Committee (SAC). Several members expressed their interest in what the OEB’s intentions were in
regards to the work developed by the SGAC.
During the ensuing discussion various members made suggestions regarding topics of interest for the
Forum’s future work. Some of the suggestions raised were as follows:

The Forum should develop a vision of what the industry’s structure might look like in a decade.
Another member suggested that this would bring the Forum closer to its original intent and
purpose. It was further suggested that the OEB’s input would be critical in that regard.

The Forum should be a consolidator of emerging trends for use by policymakers.
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
Various suggestions for guest speakers were mentioned, including Paul Murphy, the Energy
Minister, the Chair of the OEB, and someone from the New York State Public Service
Commission.
Agenda Item # 5 Presentation – Jatin Nathwani, on two topics:
1. Appelrath, Hans-Jürgen / Kagermann, Henning / Mayer, Christoph (Ed.): Future Energy Grid.
Migration to the Internet of Energy. acatech STUDY, Munich 2012; and,
2. Affordable Energy for Humanity (‘AE4H’) project
{See also, presentation, “Affordable Energy For Humanity}
Prof. Jatin Nathwani (Forum member) provided a presentation spanning some of his work during his
recent sabbatical to Germany and the United Kingdom over the past year. Jatin’s presentation covered
a wide range of topics related to the Affordable Energy for Humanity (‘AE4H’) project including access
to electricity and its role in human development issues around the world. During the presentation,
numerous examples were provided where technology plays a crucial role in this throughout the
developing world (see presentation for further details).
During the second portion of his presentation, Jatin focused on developments in Germany in the
context of the Acatech study (a link to which was also distributed with the Forum materials). This
portion of the presentation was in the context of Germany’s extensive component of non-hydro
renewables in their supply mix, concerns over energy prices and transmission bottlenecks in certain
areas of the system.
Comments from Forum members:


A member commented that the World Bank still seems to focus on massive power projects and
not as much on the kind of distributed technologies featured in Jatin’s presentation.
Another member mentioned that nanogrid are beginning to reach a critical mass in the
developing world, and this could drive the technology further.
Agenda Item # 6 –SGF/CPC joint discussion:
{see also: i. meeting support presentation}
As the CPC had not met during the past month, this item was deferred to a future meeting.
Agenda Item # 7: U.S. Legislative update
{see also: i. meeting support presentation}
Edward Arlitt provided an overview presentation to U.S. House of Representatives Bill H.R. 8: “North
American Energy Security and Infrastructure Act of 2015” (see presentation for details). If passed,
the bill would potentially add specific product labelling requirements for devices that purport to be
“smart grid ready.” During the ensuing discussion Forum members raised several issues as follows:
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
This could encourage more consumer empowerment.

A member wondered if this measure would spur utilities to develop more capabilities to exploit
the capabilities of “smart grid ready” devices.

Appliances have huge potential for load management.

There was an extensive discussion between various Forum members on proposition that utilities
should not involve themselves in commercial discussions regarding behind-the-meter devices.

The value of the market is to harness the capabilities of devices that are being purchased – not
dictate which ones should be pushed onto consumers. On this point, there was a discussion
regarding the ultimate value of these developments to the consumer.

It would be very helpful to have the results of a consumer survey on the value of smart
appliances and controllable devices.

We need a clearer delineation of the consumer realm vs. that of the utility company. There was
then an extensive discussion regarding the role of the regulated utility in this space relative to
that of an unregulated affiliate. Some members questioned the need for current separation of
these business segments, while others argued that this is still necessary in order to protect the
consumer.
Agenda Item # 7: Literature Review:
{see also, “Literature Review” slide deck for today’s meeting}
Edward Arlitt delivered today’s literature review, covering two recent reports as follows:
1.
Navigant report recommendations: Navigant Consulting, Ontario Smart Grid Assessment
and Roadmap, January, 2015
2. Transactive Energy Pilot project report: Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration
Project, “Technology Performance Report Highlights”, June, 2015
Navigant report:
This portion of the presentation specifically focused on the recommendations of the Navigant
Consulting report, Ontario Smart Grid Assessment and Roadmap, January, 2015, and compared these
recommendations to previous public recommendations made by the Forum (see also, Literature Review
presentation for today’s meeting). During this portion of the discussion, various members made the
following comments:

Lack of interoperability is becoming a major issue that is being examined by CEATI

A member suggested that the federal government has also commented on the lack of R&D
involvement of Canada’s utility sector at large. On this point another member suggested that
LDCs should take the lead on this.

A member expressed his opinion that the notion of the value of “reliability” is a contentious part
of the Navigant report, and that not all customers value it the same way.
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Agenda Item # 8: Upcoming smart grid events
{See also, support presentation for today’s meeting.}
No further events were listed during this portion of the meeting.
Agenda Item # 9: Informal roundtable discussion.
{1:45 – Adjournment.}
Next Smart Grid Forum Meeting:
Monday, November 30, 2015, IESO Offices
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APPENDIX ‘A’
S.G.F. OPEN Action Items as of October 26, 2015
See also: Smart Grid Forum Recommendation Tracking Log
Action Item
Date
Assigned
David McFadden, Bruce Campbell and Jatin Nathwani to
coordinate an invitation to the Energy Council of Canada
to extend an invitation to speak at the Forum and
possible further dialogue.
All Forum and CPC members are encouraged to leverage
the current Forum report and promote further
discussion of innovation-related issues.
Where applicable, Forum members shall identify an
individual that may be contacted in regards to the
relationship that their organization holds with an
external smart grid organization listed in the External
Contacts Log.
Forum members shall bring forth their suggestions for
an appropriate regulatory filing advocating for an
innovative project that could be supported by the
Forum as a whole.
Bruce Campbell and IESO staff shall examine the
possibility of adding a debate on the future of
innovation in the distribution sector to the agenda of
the 2015 IESO Stakeholder Summit, consisting of a panel
of speakers representing a wide spectrum of
viewpoints.
Forum members are to relate their anecdotal examples
(supported by readily-available or documented
evidence) of the uses of smart grid technologies during
the December, 2013 ice storm to Edward Arlitt for
compilation, and for potential future use by the Forum.
Corporate Partners Committee will further investigate
the “diffused benefits” problem in the context of both
energy storage and DSM activities.
Forum members specifically identified in the CPC energy
storage sub-group recommendations are asked to
designate a contact point at each organization to carry
forward these discussions, give due consideration to the
recommendations and update the Forum on progress in
their respective organizations at a future meeting.
Assigned To
Target
Completion
Status
Oct. 26, 2015
Campbell
McFadden
Nathwani
Q1, 2016
UNDERWAY
Sept. 29, 2015
Forum and CPC
Q1, 2016
UNDERWAY
Dec. 10, 2014
Forum
Q1, 2015
UNDERWAY
Dec. 10, 2014
Forum
Open
UNDERWAY
Sept. 29, 2014
IESO
Q1, 2015
UNDERWAY
Feb. 19, 2014
Forum
Apr. 29, 2014
OPEN
Progress report
provided on Feb
28, 2013
OPEN
Nov. 1, 2012
CPC
Q2, 2013
Sept. 12, 2012
Forum
Dec. 3 , 2012
th
rd
OPEN
CLOSED Action Items: As of October 12 , 2010 closed action items are no longer listed in the minutes as per the agreement
th
reached at the September 7 , 2010 Forum meeting. The removal of an open action item from the above list constitutes the
completion of that item.
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