Ontario is earning praise for a new National Energy Corridor Agreement that commits every Canadian province and territory but Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nunavut to work together on new electricity transmission infrastructure.

An Ontario government release issued March 4 calls the agreement “a major nation-building milestone, breaking down longstanding barriers between provincial grids and enabling a more connected, resilient and self-reliant energy system.”

The deal commits the 10 jurisdictions to:

• Identify and speed up new interprovincial and -territorial transmission infrastructure;

• Expand electricity trade within Canada to help the country’s regions “meet growing demand and maximize the use of clean, reliable power before exporting abroad”;

• Make the pitch for federal investment in east-west and north-south transmission corridors within Canada;

• Form partnerships and share economic benefits with Indigenous communities.

The announcement arrives ahead of an updated electricity strategy that the federal government is expected to release in the near future. The Canadian Climate Institute writes that the strategy will be aimed at “doubling the size of Canada’s electricity grids, increasing interconnections, and ensuring power remains affordable.” In late January, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson said the plan would be ready in the “coming weeks” and focus on “taking down barriers between markets.”

“Canada’s grids were built for a different era—designed within provincial borders, rather than a modern economy,” the provincial release states. The North American Electricity Reliability Council now identifies several grid regions—including the regional transmission organizations serving Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, and the Maritimes— at elevated risk, and “these constraints will lead to higher costs, slower project development, and missed economic opportunities.”

10 Times the Grid Capacity

Veteran energy modeller Ralph Torrie, director of research at Corporate Knights and author of the organization’s forthcoming Climate Dollars analysis, said Canada’s power grid needs the commitments in Tuesday’s announcement and much more.

“Yes. We need a high-voltage DC spine from Nova Scotia to British Columbia with converter stations connecting to the provincial grids,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “It needs ‘Chinese’ levels of capacity, 10 times bigger than even our largest province-to-province link right now.”

In the “renewable, [distributed] grids of the future, the transmission system is not just about moving energy, it’s about providing reliability across diverse time zones and wind regimes,” he explained. “In terms of its national unity and sovereignty potential, a TransCanada Transmission Link (TCTL) trumps other proposals in the energy sector. This should be and could be on a par with the TransCanada Railway of the 19th century and the TransCanada Highway of the 20th century.”

In the scenario research behind Climate Dollars, Torrie added, “national electricity demand doubles by 2050 and Canada transitions to a winter-peaking system, increasing firming requirements across most provinces.” With transmission interacting with “renewable geography, storage requirements, and reliability,” he wrote, “a TransCanada Transmission Link (TCTL) would reduce the capital cost of decarbonization by well over C$100 billion, after paying for the necessary HVDC infrastructure.”

‘Important Piece of Nation-Building’

Elsewhere, the announcement earned wide support, with Electricity Canada calling it an “important piece of nation-building” that will “benefit Canadians for generations.” In a release, the trade association said better east-west connections “will support Canada’s economic growth, strengthen provincial trade and support Canada’s energy independence.”

Ollie Sheldrick-Moyle, program manager at Clean Energy Canada, said a “better-connected national grid will allow for a greater share of low-cost renewables by enabling the flow of electricity across regions to balance supply and demand, while long-distance transmission of clean power can help to minimize the need for provinces to rely on more expensive fossil generation, creating savings for ratepayers.”.

He added that it was “the right call” for the signatories to advocate for national action. “Ottawa has a role to play in bringing additional financing and streamlining the approval process,” but “provinces are responsible for creating their own policy frameworks to align on energy planning.”

“Building new electricity lines between regions in Canada will bring down the cost of energy for households, create tens of thousands of good paying jobs, and lessen our dependence on the United States as an energy partner, while showing up for workers in hard-hit sectors like aluminum and steel,” said Stephen Thomas, clean energy manager at the David Suzuki Foundation, who led some of the modelling around the Clean Electricity Regulations. “Indigenous ownership is integral to the reliable and affordable clean electricity that people in Canada need and deserve,” he added, “and it’s encouraging to see those partnerships prioritized in this announcement.”

Tim Weis, senior director of the Pembina Institute’s industrial decarbonization program, said it’s “exciting to see this level of cooperation” on a form of infrastructure that has been “challenging” given provincial jurisdiction. “We’ve underinvested in transmission in Canada, which means we’ve been missing out on opportunities to fully take advantage of each province’s strengths,” he stated. With electricity demand set to rise significantly in the decades ahead, “we need to optimize the grid so we can offer abundant, affordable energy to meet those demands while enabling Canada to reduce its emissions.”

Meanwhile, an opinion piece published on the same day as the provincial announcement declared that Canada’s path to energy security now runs through electrification.

“With the spreading Middle East conflict disrupting oil and gas markets, we’re reminded that producing those commodities doesn’t insulate Canadian households and businesses from geopolitical price spikes. But electricity does,” wrote New Economy Canada President Merran Smith, independent consultant Dan Woynillowicz, and Transition Accelerator CEO Moe Kabbara for National Newswatch.

“With prices once again on the rise, the lesson is clear: energy security depends on more electricity capacity and the electrification of industry, transport, and buildings,” the three authors said. With the federal government setting a course to double electricity supply, with low costs dictating that most of that supply will be clean, “Canada must also increase electricity’s share of meeting the energy needs of Canadian businesses and households. Doubling electrification would further reduce exposure to global energy shocks, and if paired with stronger efficiency measures, could double Canada’s energy productivity.”

That “double-double-double” approach “could catalyze billions in investment, create career opportunities across the country, boost businesses productivity, lower energy costs, and bolster supply chains—from raw resources through manufacturing—and services that Canada can also export abroad,” they added.