The theme of the 2017 CAMPUT Conference was "Energy and
Regulation in Transition: Charting the Course." An interesting
session on May 8, 2017, looked at "Energy Systems in
Transition" and was titled "Winds of Change."
Sergio Marchi, the President and CEO of the Canadian
Electricity Association, was the moderator for the panel and
began by looking at some of the challenges facing the energy
industry in the immediate and longer term. Participants were urged
to consider how to find opportunities that promote innovation,
collaboration, market reform and connections between markets. It
was pointed out, though, that finding some of these opportunities
may be difficult in an environment that is singularly focused on
low-cost outcomes for ratepayers. The problem noted is that putting
all efforts towards low-cost solutions may have unintended
consequences – examples here include intergenerational
inequity, reduced reliability and stifled innovation.
