APPrO (Association of Power Producers of Ontario) is a non-profit organization representing more than 100 companies involved in the generation of electricity in Ontario, including generators and suppliers of services, equipment and consulting services. Its members produce power from co-generation, hydro-electric, gas, coal, nuclear, wind energy, waste wood and other sources. The association’s membership currently produces over 95% of the electricity in Ontario.

Conference organizers explain: “The traditional responsibilities of delivering affordable, dependable service must be reconciled with major expansion during a period of economic constraint, while playing a leading role in the global fight against climate change. At the same time, innovation in the regulatory framework and the integration of smart technology are not just parallel considerations but fundamental determinants of the business and physical models that will be needed to enable efficient investment. The process of developing models is well underway, although resolution of the competing priorities is a continuing challenge.”

While EBMag worked the exhibit hall, Green Business’ editor, Rob Colman, checked out the keynote address delivered by Roger Gale, who is the president and CEO of GF Energy LLC. Gale discussed his vision of the power industry in 10 years, though he did spend much of time posing questions rather than answering them.

The first—and perhaps main—thing he noted, however, were the inconsistencies in the marketplace.

“We have Ontario closing coal-fired plants and on the other side of the lake [U.S.] companies announcing plans to build a new fleet of coal-fired plants,” he said. “We have advanced metering in some markets, although none of those markets are using advanced metering to the extent it could be used. At the same time, we’ve got plenty of other markets that don’t even have plans to put in advanced meters.”

Probably the biggest challenge Gale sees for the North American market is the inability to charge customers what electricity is worth.

“We have in place everywhere in North America an extraordinarily artificial, inefficient and non-complying system of charging people for electricity,” Gale pointed out. “We don’t do it in ways that incentivize change, we don’t do it in ways to incentivize customers to change behaviour. We still have enormous subsidies. We have a poorly thought-through system of legacy electricity pricing that nearly no political jurisdiction in North America is ready to tinker with, let alone revolutionize. And until we get to the point where we can have dynamic pricing—which advanced metering and new technologies allow—will people pay what it really costs.”

Gale believes that new baseload generation capacity will have to be built in North America in the next 10 years, but also believes we are moving to a more dispersed generating pattern. In many places, with concerns about dirty coal, Gale sees the future issue being a “renewables versus natural gas” debate.

The keynote speaker also pointed out some of the transmission problems (smart or otherwise) inherent in renewables. “Who is going to pay for all the remote connections to wind and solar? This is an issue that is not resolved anywhere, and to the extent that we’ve moved down the road of building more wind and solar, and other remote technologies... the costs of transmission are huge relative to the amount of power that comes from it.”

To learn more of Gale’s keynote address, which also delves into wind farm siting, energy storage and more, CLICK HERE to check out Rob Colman’s full report at Green Business.