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ARTICLE · 04 FEBRUARY 2021

OEB To Continue Its Responding To Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) Consultation

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On December 16, 2020 and January 18, 2021, the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) issued letters about the publication of expert reports from London Economics Inc LLC (LEI) and ICF on the future of...

CanadaEnergy and Natural Resources
Devyn Noonan
Devyn Noonan
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On December 16, 2020 and January 18, 2021, the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) issued letters about the publication of expert reports from London Economics Inc LLC (LEI) and ICF on the future of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) projects in Ontario. The reports emanate from the OEB's ongoing consultations designed to evaluate how the electricity sector in Ontario should respond to DERs (explained in our previous post).

The December 16 letter highlights the publication of five LEI reports commissioned in September 2020. One of these reports – COVID-19 Impact on Distributed Energy Resources (the LEI Report) – is relevant to the DER consultations.

The LEI Report concludes that in the short term, the pandemic will depress certain factors driving DER adoption due to consumers' increased desire for cost savings and decreased willingness to pay for environmental benefits in the current financial climate. However, it also indicates that COVID-19 will increase certain

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