Vulnerability Assessment for Ontario’s Electricity Distribution Sector

About the report

We are sharing a technical report that summarizes anticipated extreme weather and resiliency risks to Ontario’s electricity distribution sector.

This report is intended to support:

• electricity distribution utilities and communities as they work to enhance their energy infrastructure resilience
• work underway by the Ontario Energy Board to enhance distribution sector resilience. This includes the plan to require electricity Local Distribution Companies (LDCs) to "engage in regular data-driven empirical assessments of the vulnerabilities in their distribution system and operations in the event of severe weather”

Overview of the Report

This assessment aims to provide an overview of how key vulnerabilities to the distribution system vary across the province of Ontario. As a compendium of data, knowledge and approaches, it is intended to provide orientation to the sector and serve as a useful starting point for local distribution companies (LDCs) to undertake their own local assessments.

The report lays out the critical importance of electrical reliability and resilience in an interconnected system of critical infrastructures. It provides an overview of the characteristics and configuration of Ontario’s distribution system, how the intensity, duration and frequency of extreme weather events is expected to change over the coming decades, and what this means for risks to the distribution system. The report also provides an overview of best practices and strategies for building resilience, as well as considerations for the role that planning, regulation and technical standards can play in enabling cost-effective risk-reduction.