March 10, 2016 – The Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) has released the list of 16 contracts that have been offered under the Large Renewable Procurement (LRP), a competitive process for procuring large renewable energy projects generally greater than 500 kW.

The 16 contracts offered represent 454.885 MW of renewable energy capacity. The results include:

• 5 wind contracts totalling 299.5 MW, with a weighted average price of 8.59 cents/kWh;
• 7 solar contracts totalling 139.885 MW, with a weighted average price of 15.67 cents/kWh; and
• 4 hydroelectric contracts totalling 15.5 MW, with a weighted average price of 17.59 cents/kWh.

RES and Boralex are one of the contract winners, selected for their 50MW “Otter Creek Wind Farm Project”, which is situated on private lands in the municipality of Chatham-Kent. It is targeted to reach commercial operation by the end of 2019.

“We look forward to working together with the Municipality of Chatham-Kent and the Walpole Island First Nation to bring the next generation of renewable energy to the area,” said Peter Clibbon, senior VP of Development of RES in Canada, and Patrick Lemaire, president and CEO of Boralex.

The full list of contract offers, including project locations and contact information, can be downloaded below.

Once the contracts are executed, IESO noted proponents will need to meet a number of contractual requirements as well as environmental and permitting approvals before they can build their projects.

“CanWEA was pleased to see such a large response to Ontario’s LRP RFP from wind energy developers,” said CanWEA president Robert Hornung. “The extent of the response to the RFP is indicative of a mature wind energy industry in Ontario that is capable of expanding the level of affordable and zero-emission electricity generation it can provide for Ontarians.”

The Ontario Waterpower Association (OWA) also congratulates the proponents of waterpower projects.

“I am pleased that these four projects can now move forward and invest in existing infrastructure”, said Paul Norris, president of the OWA. “It is clear, however, that awarding contracts based on current and changing connection capacity is limiting waterpower’s potential.”

Under the first LRP, waterpower was allocated up to 75MW of contract capacity. In response to the program, approximately half of that allocation was applied, OWA said.

“Given that some contract capacity available was unallocated, it is apparent that waterpower faces some unique challenges”, Norris added. “The OWA looks forward to working with the IESO as it begins the review of the LRP.”

The IESO said formal engagement on the lessons learned from this procurement and the development of the next round is expected to start in late March 2016. An engagement plan has been posted at www.ieso.ca with additional details.