Save on Energy
green suburbia

Local Initiatives

Local initiatives will encourage competition, innovation, cost savings and customer-driven solutions.

As part of the 2021-2024 Conservation and Demand Management (CDM) Framework, local initiatives will be developed to deliver CDM savings in targeted areas of the province with identified system needs. The local initiatives will be sourced using competitive mechanisms, such as open procurements. This approach will enable a broad range of participants to propose CDM programs and opportunities encouraging competition, innovation, cost savings and customer-driven solutions.

Local initiatives are intended to:

  • deliver 57 MW of demand savings and 230 GWh of energy savings over four years as per the 2021-2024 CDM program plan 
  • demonstrate the ability to use CDM as a resource to achieve specified demand and/or energy reductions that can help address regional and/or local electricity system constraints, as identified through the IESO’s regional planning process 
  • identify how targeted CDM can be used as a resource in the service territories of local utilities to address distribution system needs 
  • be cost effective and not duplicative of current province-wide CDM programs.

Targeted areas for local initiatives

The areas selected for the first cycle of local initiatives in Ontario include:

  • Richview South area in Toronto 
  • York Region
  • Ottawa
  • Belle River area in Windsor-Essex

Competitive procurements will be used for the target areas in the first cycle and are expected to be in the range of 500 kW to 10 MW. The procurements may be scoped to target customer sectors, program types or eligible technologies. 

When available, the Request for Proposals (RFP) for these initiatives will be posted publicly on www.merx.com and will be available to any vendors that can meet the requirements. The first of the procurements for the target areas are expected to be released in the second half of 2021. Additional details on the specific timing and sequencing will be shared as it becomes available.

A second cycle of local initiatives will be initiated in late 2022. The regions selected during the second cycle will be identified based on regional system needs at that time.