Is the Grid in Canada Ready for Electrification? | Video

CIET's Ask Us Anything series is a free monthly Q&A session with industry experts.

In the Achieving Net-Zero Buildings sessions, Professional Engineer and CIET Trainer, Brad White dove into a variety of topics.

If you missed it, here is a key topic that was discussed during the session.

Question: Is the grid in Canada ready for electrification?

Answer:

Lisa: So this is broad because as you've pointed out, the provinces are all at different points and system operators are probably at different points in terms of the regional planning process, so there are a lot of complexities there. Did you want to touch on that?

Brad: Could we electrify every building in the country right now today with existing infrastructure? No. There are still limitations to it. We couldn't electrify the whole vehicle fleet right now either. There are certainly limitations in the existing infrastructure.

But can we start? Absolutely.

In most of the buildings that we've been doing studies on, we find that, no, we actually don't have an electrical service capacity issue. Now there have been some that have 100% and that creates a whole new set of challenges or creates a barrier. But there are an awful lot of buildings that have enough capacity; the local distribution has enough capacity. So there's a lot that we can get started on.

The utilities are going to have to make that investment - that's going to have to be part of this 100%. I don't think the utilities can just sit back and be like "Oh yeah, we're not going to do anything and we're going to electricfy 500%". There's no way. But can we get there? I think so.

It's not easy. This is a generational challenge in terms of rebuilding our infrastructure. I don't think any of us should assume this is going to be easy, but we've tackled bigger things as a society in the past. I don't think we should shy away from it for that reason. I don't think we should have any illusions that it's going to be easy, but I think if we make the necessary investments, if we plan correctly, that it can be done.

Want to learn more about Achieving Net-Zero Buildings?

Achieving Net-Zero Buildings is a 2-day course in which you will gain knowledge on decarbonizing both new and existing buildings. You will also explore alternative methods for retrofitting buildings that do not consume low carbon fuel sources. The course provides case studies and practical activities from a variety of building types in the commercial, multi-unit residential, and institutional sectors.

This course is focused on the direct strategies and measures needed to achieve net zero emissions in buildings. The topics covered include:  

• Actions for achieving net zero emissions in new buildings. 
• Analysis of retrofit strategies and pathways for existing facilities  
• Non-retrofit approaches to emission reductions such as renewable energy credits, onsite generation, carbon offsets, etc. 
• Examination of related certifications (Passive House and the CAGBC Zero Carbon Building Standard) 
• Non-energy emissions such as embodied emissions and refrigerants.

Learn more and find an upcoming session.