Climate science has demonstrated that the global climate is changing due, in part, to an accumulation of greenhouse (GHG) emissions in the atmosphere. This change creates risk for the reliability and resilience of the electricity grid. Various reports have captured this trend, including the NERC 2021 Electric Reliability Organization Reliability Risk Priorities Report and the International Energy Agency (IEA)’s Energy Security 2021 report. The path to net zero means increased reliance on the electricity system to support many critical infrastructure and services, and economic systems; and it emphasizes the need to ensure reliability and resilience of the current and future electricity systems.
As the IESO continues its work to ensure grid reliability and resiliency, physical climate risks must be appropriately addressed in its planning (including resource and transmission planning), procurement, energy efficiency programs, market design and real-time operations. Through this RFP, the IESO intends to enter into an agreement with a single service provider that will support these efforts via a climate resiliency and adaptation study, as further described in the RFP.
