Update on the Large Renewable Procurement

On March 10, 2015, the IESO posted the final RFP and contract materials for the first phase of the Large Renewable Procurement Request for Proposals (LRP I RFP). Qualified applicants have until September 1, 2015 to submit project-specific proposals which must include full details about the project, including location, capacity, connection point and evidence of meaningful community engagement with municipalities, Aboriginal communities and other groups. Notification of the selected proponents is currently targeted to take place between November and December 2015.

LRP I RFP was developed following the elimination of procurement from large renewable energy projects (> 500 kW) under the Feed-in Tarriff (FIT) program. On June 12, 2013, the Minister of Energy directed the OPA (now IESO) to make changes to renewable procurement under the FIT program. Procurement from micro-generation (‰¤10kW) and small generation (‰¤500kW) projects would continue while procurement from large-scale renewable projects would shift to a competitive process, the LRP I RFP.

*With assistance from Laura Dean, an articling student at Aird & Berlis LLP